The Blind Assassin
- 628
- Pages
- about 12 h
- Reading time
- Booker Prize
- Hammett Prize
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Our view
“The Blind Assassin” takes its time, and some readers who stay with it find a novel that goes on working in them after the last page. Atwood tells a family story from the Ontario of the 1930s and 1940s through a narrator looking back, newspaper cuttings and a tale within the tale. Several readers find the build-up slow; some feel the final revelation does not repay it, while others call the ending satisfying.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Blind Assassin is a novel by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. It was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 2000. Set in the fictional Ontario town of Port Ticonderoga and in Toronto, it is narrated from the present day, referring to previous events that span the twentieth century but mostly the 1930s and 1940s. It is a work of historical fiction with the major events of Canadian history forming an important backdrop, for example, the On-to-Ottawa Trek and a 1934 Communist rally at Maple Leaf Gardens. Greater verisimilitude is given by a series of newspaper articles commenting on events and on the novel's characters from a distance.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.9 across 285 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 66% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 8.0 comes out. A further +0.10 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.3 | 9 | 3% |
| Google Books | 8.0 | 21 | 7% |
| Hardcover | 7.9 | 255 | 90% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Blind Assassin?
It has 628 pages — longer than 85% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Science fiction — with scores between 7.9 and 8.0, closest to this book.
