The Heart Goes Last: A Novel [Paperback]

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale

Stan and Charmaine, a young urban couple, have been hit by job loss and bankruptcy in the midst of a nationwide economic collapse. Forced to live in their third-hand Honda, where they are vulnerable to roving gangs, they think the gated community of Consilience may be the answer to their prayers. If they sign a life contract, they’ll get a job and a lovely house . . . for six months out of the year. On alternating months, residents must leave their homes and serve as inmates in the Positron prison system. At first, this seems worth it: they will have a roof over their heads and food on the table. But when a series of troubling events unfolds, Positron begins to look less like a prayer answered and more like a chilling prophecy fulfilled.The Heart Goes Lastis a vivid, urgent vision of development and decay, freedom and surveillance, struggle and hope—and the timeless workings of the human heart.   

One of the Best Books of the Year: The Boston Globe“Captivating. . . . Thrilling. . . . Margaret Atwood [is] a living legend.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Quintessential Atwood. . . . The writing here is so persuasive, so crisp, that it seeps under your skin.”—The Boston Globe

“An arresting perspective on the confluence of information, freedom, and security in the modern age.”—The New Yorker
 
“A gripping, psychologically acute portrayal of our own future gone totally wrong, and the eternal constant of flawed humanity.”—Huffington Post

“Dystopia virtuoso Margaret Atwood turns her effortless world-building, deft humor and grim commentary on the depths of human hubris to the prison industrial complex, love and free will.” —ló