Oryx and Crake

‘Saturated in science, the novel is simultaneously alive with literary resonances … superlatively gripping and remarkably imagined’

1. The Sunday Times

Shortlisted for both the Man Booker and Orange prizes, Margaret Atwood’s novel – a prophetic tale of a human race all but wiped out by plague – is threaded with dark humour. Following The Folio Society’s gorgeous and much-admired edition of The Handmaid’s Tale, this new volume sizzles with the dangerous heat and underlying menace of a ravaged America. Using a carefully selected pastel palette, award-winning illustrator Harriet Lee-Merrion has produced a series of quietly unsettling artworks that convey societal collapse with an eerie sense of detachment, while the binding design reflects the scientific foundation of Atwood’s narrative.  

In a foreword specially commissioned for our edition, Atwood returns to the novel she wrote more than 15 years ago, and to the questions it raised – ones that remain equally pertinent today: ‘How slippery is the slope? … Who’s got the will to stop us?’ There are no answers, she concludes, but her prophetic tale creeps dangerously closer to reality as the years pass.

Society has become divided between the compounds and the pleeblands: the former pushing the ethical boundaries of science for human benefit in self-contained, hermitically sealed cities; the latter fending for themselves in the unregulated outskirts. And while Jimmy struggles with his conscience, Crake forges ahead with his plans for a future race of humans that are naturally disease-free, UV-resistant, vegetarian and seasonally reproductive. But how to pave the way for these new, improved models? Crake has a plan, but he’s not intending to tell anyone about it … not even his best friend.

Atwood spins speculative fiction with consummate skill, and her vision of homo sapiens’ monumental demise is worryingly easy to accept. She confronts society’s ills in a blazing attack that leaves little doubt as to her stance on the balancing act between enhancing and meddling, nurturing and conquering. Radical genetic modification, environmental meltdown and moral apathy create the perfect storm for an apocalypse. As Atwood’s humans become increasingly bold with their biological tinkering, they ignore nature’s backlash until there can be no other outcome: reboot the desire to dominate, or face decimation.

Harriet Lee-Merrion is an award-winning, Bristol-based illustrator whose work has been published worldwide and exhibited in New York, London and Berlin. She prefers to draw and paint on paper; its off-white tone provides a consistent backdrop to all her artworks. Lee-Merrion’s work combines a variety of influences, from Japanese woodblocks to Surrealist paintings, and botanical and medical engravings. Her images can be seen in a range of international publications including Die Zeit, Bild, the New York Times, the Guardian, Marie Claire France and Le Pan in Hong Kong. Lee-Merrion has also created campaigns for the British Library’s ‘Discovering Literature Series’, looking at work by Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf and Angela Carter. She is the co-founder of Beginning Middle End, a publishing collective of illustrators who regularly create artists books and exhibit together.