The Year of the Flood is a novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, the second book of her dystopian trilogy, released on September 22, 2009 in Canada and the United States, and on September 7, 2009, in the United Kingdom. The novel was mentioned in numerous newspaper review articles looking forward to notable fiction of 2009.
The book focuses on a religious sect called the God's Gardeners, a small community of survivors of the same biological catastrophe depicted in Atwood's earlier novel Oryx and Crake. The earlier novel contained several brief references to the group.
It answers some of the questions of Oryx and Crake, develops and further elaborates upon several of the characters in the first book, and reveals the identity of the three human figures who appear at the end of the earlier book. The final book of the trilogy is MaddAddam.
The Year of the Flood details the events of Oryx and Crake from the perspective of the lower classes in the pleeblands, specifically the God's Gardeners. God's Gardeners are a religious sect that combines some Biblical practices and beliefs with some scientific practices and beliefs. They are vegetarians devoted to honoring and preserving all plant and animal life, and they predict a human species-ending disaster, which they call "The Waterless Flood". This prediction becomes true in a sense, as Crake's viral pandemic destroys human civilization.
The plot follows two characters, Toby and Ren, whose stories intertwine with each other and, at points, with major characters from Oryx and Crake. Much of the story is told through flashbacks with the two main characters separately surviving the apocalypse described in the previous novel, each reminiscing about their time in the God's Gardeners religious movement and the events that led to their current situations.
Toby is a young woman who loses her parents under tragic circumstances that may or may not be due to the corporations, and is forced to live off of the grid in a shady meat burger joint. She soon encounters the unwelcome attentions of Blanco – the psychopathic manager of the chain who sexually assaults women in his employ and has a reputation of killing women. The leader of God's Gardeners, Adam One, is looked up to as a charismatic holy man but perceived by outsiders as a cult leader. He saves Toby from Blanco and takes her to the sanctuary of his rooftop garden. Toby becomes an influential member of the gardeners and encounters Ren, a child member of the gardeners.
Ren eventually grows up to become a prostitute and trapeze dancer in the sex-club Scales and Tails, and happens to be locked in a bio-containment unit in the club when the pandemic occurs. Similarly, Toby is barricaded within a luxury spa where she has begun to work following a raid on the gardeners by Blanco and his brutish pals.
Main characters
Ren, a trapeze dancer and prostitute who works at the brothel Scales and Tails, who survives the plague by being isolated in the club's biohazard containment chamber. She previously dated and fell in love with Jimmy (Snowman) in school.
Toby, a God's Gardener who goes into hiding to escape a dangerous stalker, by working in a high-end spa.
Oryx, Crake (aka Glenn) and Jimmy appear in cameo roles over the course of the book with the protagonists Ren and Toby unaware that these characters are responsible for the pandemic. While the first book in the series, Oryx and Crake, is told from the perspective of Jimmy/Snowman, The Year of the Flood is told from the point of view of two women, Ren and Toby.
Pilar, Eve Six ("the Fungus") – Instructor: Bees & Mycology (Mushrooms)
Nuala, Eve Nine ("the Wet Witch") – Seamstress; Instructor: Little kids, Fabric Recycling, Buds and Blooms Choir
Rebecca, Eve Eleven (“the Salt and Peppler”) – Cook; Instructor: Culinary Arts
Adam One – the charismatic leader of the cult
Zeb, Adam Seven ("the Mad Adam") – Instructor: Urban Bloodshed Limitation, Predator-Prey Relationships, Animal Camouflage
Burt, Adam Thirteen ("the Knob") – Bernice’s father; Veena’s husband; in charge of Garden Vegetables; Instructor: Wild and Garden Botanicals
Bernice – Veena and Burt’s daughter
Shackleton (Shackie) – (oldest brother) – named after explorer Ernest Shackleton
Crozier (Croze) – (middle brother) – named after explorer Francis Crozier
Oates – (youngest brother) - named after explorer Lawrence Oates
Lucerne – Ren’s mother
Katuro (“the Wrench”) – Water Systems Maintenance; Instructor: Emergency Medical
Philo (“the Fog”) – Shackleton, Crozier, and Oates’ stand-in father; Instructor: Meditation
Surya – Instructor: Sewing
Mugi (“the Muscle”) – Instructor: Mental Arithmetic
Marushka Midwife (“the Mucous”) – Instructor: Human Reproductive System, former gynecologist
Stuart (“the Screw”) – Furniture maker
Veena – Bernice’s mother; Burt’s wife
Amanda – Pleebrat that Ren brought home to live with her; Ren's best friend
Pleebs: Any non-Corp or non-"affluent" area
HelthWyzer Compound: A Corps location where HelthWyzer and its employees reside
EdenCliff Rooftop Garden: Home to the God's Gardeners, located in Sewage Lagoon
Wellness Clinic
Cheese Factory: Where Ren, Lucerne, Zeb, and eventually Amanda live
Buenavista Condos: A dilapidated former "luxury" condo where many God's Gardeners (including Bernice and her family) live
AnooYoo: A health spa, of sorts, where women receive "improvements"
SecretBurgers: Cheap hamburger chain. The name reflects the fact that the ingredients of the burgers are unknown, and may include human flesh
Painball Arena: A facility for condemned criminals, both political and non-political, where Red and Gold teams competed to kill members of the other side
Sewage Lagoon: A pleeb area formally known as Willow Acres
HelthWyzer High: A high school attended by Ren, Jimmy, and Glenn (aka Crake)
Watson-Crick: College for technical "brainiacs" where Glenn attended
Martha Graham: A less-competitive, 'words' college attended by Toby (did not graduate), Ren, and Jimmy
SeksMart: A legal brothel corporation
Compounds: Where the Corps people live and work (scientists, businessmen, etc.)
Tree of Life Materials Exchange: A farmer's market of sorts
Scales and Tails: An club where prostitutes, covered in scales, dance and perform trapeze acts for customers
Sticky Zone: A quarantine area within Scales and Tails, that temporarily houses women suspected of being biologically contaminated.
Snakepit
CorpSeCorps: Corporation Security Corps (notoriously-corrupt private police force)
Corporation: In the world of the novel, society is controlled by a small number of powerful corporations
NatMart Net: A loose collective of natural producers of goods (the God's Gardeners are a part of this "Net")
Pleebmob: Organized criminals that operate within the pleebs
God's Gardeners: A pacifist vegetarian cult led by Adam One
"affluents": The bourgeoisie
Various Street Gangs: Asian Fusions, Blackened Redfish, Lintheads, Tex-Mexes
Various Religious Groups: Pure-Heart Brethren Sufis, Ancients of Days, Hare Krishnas, Wolf Isaiahists and Lion Isaiahists (cults who were "at odds over whether it was the lion or the wolf that would lie down with the lamb once the Peaceable Kingdom had arrived)
"Rich People Religions": Known Fruits, Petrobaptists
Sea/H/Ear Candies: Candies that allow individuals to hear music in their ear
Carbon Garboil: Source of biofuel that is constituted from biological matter of dubious origin, similar to the way the ingredients used by SecretBurger are unknown
Poppy: An opiate used by the God's Gardeners; addictive
Bimplants: Breast implants
Jellyfish Bracelets: Bracelets with tiny aquariums inside
Gro-Op: Growing operation, where skunkweed (a powerful, genetically engineered recreational drug) is produced
Violet porta-biolet: Composting toilet
Nose cone: A mask worn by the Gardener's to protect from airborne contaminants
Wage-slave: Term used in modern day to denote an individual bound to a low-wage occupation
Mo'Hair: Multicolored sheep bred to be shorn for use in human wigs
Liobam: Lion/lamb hybrid created to fulfill the prophecy of the lion laying down with the lamb
Pleebrat: A child living in the Pleebs; usually up to no good
Ararat: stockpile of food and supplies, made in preparation for the Waterless Flood
SecretBurger: a chain of burger restaurants that serve burgers made from an unknown but dubious mixture of meats
Rarity: a chain of restaurants that specializes in serving meat from rare and endangered animals
Saint's Days
Saint Bashir Alouse
Saint Yossi Leshem of Barn Owls
Saint Dian Fossey
Saint Farley Mowat of Wolves
Saint Crick
Saint Maria Sibylla Merian of Insect Metamorphosis Day
Saint Allan Sparrow of Clean Air
Saint Euell of Wild Foods Week
Saint E. F. Schumacher
Saint Jane Jacobs
Saint Sigrithur of Gullfoss
Saint Wayne Grady of Vultures
Saint James Lovelock
The Blessed Gautama Buddha
Saint Bridget Stutchbury of Shade Coffee
Saint Linnaeus of Botanical Nomenclature
Saint Stephen Jay Gould of the Jurassic Shales
Saint Gilberto Silva of Bats
Saint Orlando Garrido of Lizards
Saint Francis of Assisi
Jesus of Nazareth
Saint Jacques Cousteau
Saint E. O. Wilson of Hymenoptera
Saint Aleksander Zawadzki of Galicia
Saint Suryamani Bhagat of India
Saint Stephen King of Pureora Forest in New Zealand
Saint Odigha of Nigeria
Saint Jerome of Lions
Saint Robert Burns of Mice
Saint Christopher Smart of Cats
Ikhwan al-Safa
Saint Karen Silkwood
Saint Anil Agarwal
Saint Nganeko Minhinnick of Manukau
Saint Wen Bo Day
Saint Mahatma Gandhi
Saint Henri Fabre
Saint Anna Atkins
Saint Tim Flannery
Saint Ichida-San
Saint David Suzuki
Saint Peter Matthiessen
Saint Rachel Carson and All Birds
Saint Chico Mendes
Saint Terry Fox and All Wayfarers (Saint Sojourner Truth, Saint Shackleton, Saint Francis Crozier, Saint Laurence "Titus" Oates)
Saint Julian of Norwich
Feast Days
Creation Day
Podocarp Day
Feast of Adam and All Primates
Festival of Arks
Mole Day / Festival of Underground Life
Feast of Crocodylidae
April Fish
Feast of Serpent Wisdom
Pollination Day
Predator Day
The Waterless Flood
Atwood's tour to promote the book included choral performances of 14 religious hymns that appear in the book.
For both Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, Atwood donated naming rights to characters in the novel to charity auctions. One of the winning bidders was journalist Rebecca Eckler, who paid $7,000 at a benefit for the magazine The Walrus.
The novel was generally well-received; reviewers noted that while the plot was sometimes chaotic, the novel's imperfections meshed well with the flawed reality the book was trying to reflect. The Daily Telegraph commented that "Margaret Atwood is genuinely inventive, rather than merely clever".
In 2010, the novel was longlisted as a candidate for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the 2010 Trillium Book Award.
The novel was selected for inclusion in the 2014 edition of CBC Radio's Canada Reads, where it was defended by Stephen Lewis.
