Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts is Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s 2025 memoir. This expansive autobiographical account documents the most significant moments of Atwood’s life and writing career, from her childhood in Ontario and Quebec to her university studies and decades-long career as one of Canada’s most celebrated authors. In her memoir, Atwood connects her lived experience to her work as a poet and novelist, explaining how specific events and people in her life became inspiration for her many novels, while maintaining a wry, self-questioning tone about persona and reputation. In addition to Transforming Real-Life Experience into Fiction, the memoir explores themes of Confronting Sexism as a Female Author and Negotiating Writers’ Many Selves.

This guide is based on the Kindle edition of this work.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of gender discrimination, pregnancy loss, self-harm, emotional abuse, sexual harassment, suicidal ideation, mental illness, antigay bias, sexual violence, rape, illness, death, substance use, addiction, animal death, bullying, sexual content, and cursing.

Summary

Margaret Atwood opens by reflecting on how she, like all writers, has at least two selves—a “writer self” and a “daily self”—and she promises to illuminate how her selves developed. She recounts her family’s history in Nova Scotia, where her parents, Carl Atwood and Margaret Killam, were born and raised. After the couple married, they moved to Ontario, but they spent many months of the year in rural northern Ontario and Quebec for Carl’s job in forestry. This wild setting is where Atwood spent many formative years of her life with her loving parents. Carl was a gifted naturalist and passed on his curiosity about nature to his daughter, while Margaret Killam was a gifted storyteller who embraced simple living in their rustic, hand-built cabin.

Moving between their cabin and homes in Ottawa, Sault Saint Marie, and later Toronto, Atwood grew into a gifted girl. By grade one, she already knew how to read and excelled in her class. When her family moved into their new home in Toronto, however, things worsened for Atwood, as she became a victim of bullying throughout grade four. This experience made her more wary of people and informed her novel Cat’s Eye. In high school, Atwood dealt with anemia and a heart condition that made it difficult to feel engaged. However, her English teacher recognized her writing ability and encouraged her. Atwood began regularly writing poetry and announced her aspiration to become a novelist.

Atwood gradually became more aware of world politics and the ongoing Cold War. As a 16-year-old, she decided to become a poet and novelist, a decision her parents were reluctant to support. At university, she studied English, lived at home, and supported herself with summer jobs such as working as a camp counselor. Some of her poetry was published, boosting her confidence and motivation to keep writing, even though the Canadian literary scene was practically nonexistent at the time. Atwood began her doctorate at Harvard and returned to Canada in the summer to work at a company called Canadian Facts, helping her gain inspiration for what would become The Edible Woman. After traveling to Europe for the first time, she began teaching at The University of British Columbia, a year-long job during which she completed her book of poems The Circle Game and began The Edible Woman, her first published novel.

Atwood felt a sense of urgency to complete the novel, as she had to return to Harvard to finish her doctorate. Once the manuscript was completed, she sent it to a Canadian publisher and returned to Cambridge, where she took part in anti-war protests and continued to complete her coursework. She learned that her poetry book The Circle Game had won the Governor General’s Award, and she travelled to Ottawa to accept her award. The prestigious prize helped her find a publisher for The Edible Woman. She and her beau, Jim Polk, married in Boston and soon moved to Edmonton, where he had gotten a teaching job and she was going to work on her doctoral thesis and next novel. This did not last long; they hated the city, and both felt stressed. They left for London, England, where Atwood worked on the script for the film adaptation of The Edible Woman. Back in Canada, Atwood began a teaching job and a new relationship with author Graeme Gibson.

Atwood’s relationship with Graeme grew slowly, but she finally decided to divorce Jim Polk and make Graeme her new partner. She enjoyed another professional success as Survival, an anthology of Canadian literature she edited, became a best-seller, and her third novel, Lady Oracle, was also released. She and Graeme enjoyed a new life on a farm in rural Ontario, and they welcomed their daughter, Jess, into the family. Atwood’s career continued to grow; her works became available in different languages, and she wrote another novel, Life Before Man. She also became a supporter of Amnesty International and a cofounder of PEN Canada, a human rights nonprofit. Atwood’s travels abroad in Iran, Afghanistan, and East Berlin helped to inspire her next novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, which would go on to become her best-known work.

Atwood also discusses writing The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, and the Maddaddam Trilogy. She has always been interested in creating female characters with depth and complexity, including villainous qualities. She reflects on how The Handmaid’s Tale seemed even more relevant to American audiences after the US Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade around the same time that the novel was adapted into a show. Meanwhile, Atwood continued to take on many creative projects, from adapting The Tempest as Hag-Seed to becoming the Massey Lecturer for 2009.

In 2012, Atwood’s husband was diagnosed with dementia at the age of 80, but the two continued to travel and promote her work, including the Netflix series based on Alias Grace and her new novel, The Testaments. While they were in England for the book launch, Graeme had a stroke and passed away. Stunned with grief, Atwood continued her promotional tour, feeling robotic but determined to carry on. Her next set of poems, Dearly, expresses her grief for Graeme. Her latest book of short stories, Old Babes in the Woods, is a combination of autobiographical stories and semi-fictionalized accounts of her, her sister, and her husband’s experiences, while her poetry collection Paper Boat reflects on the fragility of human life. Atwood concludes by voicing concern about the dark direction that world politics has taken while hoping for the best and acknowledging that her time is now short.