瑪格麗特·阿特伍德（Margaret Atwood）於1939年11月18日齣生加拿大首都渥太華，在傢排行老二，有一兄，一妹。父親是森林植物學傢，母親畢業於多倫多大學，主修傢政。阿特伍德七歲時，全傢移居多倫多，父親則任教多倫多大學。

阿特伍德就讀於裏賽高中時即展露文纔，在校刊發錶散文及詩作，之後就讀多倫多大學的維多利亞學院，師事諾若普·佛萊等教授。畢業時榮獲伍卓·威爾森（Woodrow Wilson）奬學金，繼續在哈佛大學攻讀維多利亞時期英國文學，師承傑隆·巴剋利，二十三歲獲碩士學位，隨即留在哈佛攻讀博士課程。1966年自從她的第二本詩集《圈戲》齣版後，阿特伍德在加拿大文學界就聲名大噪。目前阿特伍德與小說傢格姆·吉伯森及女兒潔思定居多倫多市。

在阿特伍德的詩作中，舉凡《圈戲》、《在那國度的動物》、《蘇珊娜·慕迪的劄記》、《詩選》、《雙首詩選》及《不見月亮的期間》等，都呈現女性觀察入微，深入心靈意識的層麵，主題也多圍繞“在一個瞬息萬變、詭譎的世界裏，如何保持清晰意識及自主性”的課題。

1976年的《女法師》、1986年的《貼身仕女的故事》、1988年的《貓眼》、1993年的《強盜新娘》、1996年《彆名葛莉絲》及近作2000年8月齣版的《盲刺客》皆以獨特的阿特伍德敘事手法、復雜的情節鋪陳以及女性意識的勾勒，吸引廣大的讀者。

Margaret Atwood takes the art of storytelling to new heights in a dazzling new novel that unfolds layer by astonishing layer and concludes in a brilliant and wonderfully satisfying twist.

For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious.

The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a- novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.

Told in a style that magnificently captures the colloquialisms and clichés of the 1930s and 1940s, The Blind Assassin is a richly layered and uniquely rewarding experience. The novel has many threads and a series of events that follow one another at a breathtaking pace. As everything comes together, readers will discover that the story Atwood is telling is not only what it seems to be--but, in fact, much more.

The Blind Assassin proves once again that Atwood is one of the most talented, daring, and exciting writers of our time. Like The Handmaid's Tale, it is destined to become a classic.

From the Hardcover edition.