Nan Talese

Fraser’s earliest days were spent in an aristocratic family in pre-World War II Britain. Her parents were both deeply involved in politics, while Antonia was mesmerized by history; it was the one constant in her life, and she researched and wrote one magnificent historical biography after another including Mary, Queen of Scots, The Wives of Henry VIII, and Faith and Treason. This memoir is a lyrical celebration of a time and place that has largely disappeared, and a great companion to the memoir she wrote on her marriage and partnership with Harold Pinter (Must You Go?). – Barbara Hoagland

There is no tonic more bracing in the face of our present melting-down world than Margaret Atwood’s smart and slyly funny cynicism, no stratagem more effective in warding off disaster than staring it in the face—and laughing at it. The Heart Goes Last finds a married couple, Stan and Charmaine, living in their car fending off roving gangs. The economy has crashed and their once-bright futures are dim, to put it mildly. After seeing an ad for a corporation that offers hope—security, money, a safe albeit controlled environment—they apply, ignoring warnings from Stan’s brother, and are accepted. What happens to each of them in the town of Consilience, the panache and wit with which Atwood peoples that town, what their fate says about the fate of all of us is the stuff of this mesmerizing, funny, frightening novel. – Betsy Burton