"When I first held question-and-answer meetings with readers in the 1960s, they asked me: when are you going to commit suicide? I was a poet, and in those days haunted by the ghost of Sylvia Plath, suicide was expected. In the early days of the women's movement, people asked about , do I hate men. Then in the 1980s they started asking about the process of writing. After 1985, they wanted to talk about The Handmaid's Tale, as they do now: it seems that I was too close to the truth about the state control of women's bodies.
But recently they ask: is there hope? My answer is: there is always hope. Hope is our built-in quality. And it's contagious: hope inspires more hope, because when people hope, they pull themselves together. This is what we all need in the future."

Why do people in all cultures tell stories?
How much of ourselves can we give without disappearing?
How can we live on this planet?
What is true? What is fair?
What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism?
Margaret Atwood approaches the increasingly pressing problems of our world with astonishing insight, compelling honesty, and mischievous humor. In addition to the issues of technology, the climate crisis and politics, the author also guides the reader through the diverse landscapes of popular and "high" literature: from the genius of Stephen King and the typology of monsters in horror literature to the works of many classical and contemporary female writers, to Shakespeare, Kafka and, of course, his own to the secrets of his workshop. But more personal topics are also included in the book - for example, when old people should give advice to young people (only if asked), or what a writer's week looks like (more chaotic than we think).
We are approaching, the stormy period in which the writings of the volume were written brought surprising political turns, an economic crisis and a pandemic. More and more people are worried about the future of the planet and our civilization, bewildered by the new dystopian events. Atwood does not offer false reassurance or an easy escape route, but her unbreakable serenity, consistently represented values, and comprehensive perspective of the entire history of humanity help us find our own answers to burning questions.