The Blind Assassin is a novel by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. It was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 2000. The book is 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.[1][2] Greater verisimilitude is given by a series of newspaper articles commenting on events and on the novel's characters from a distance.
The work was awarded the Booker Prize in 2000 and the Hammett Prize in 2001 and also received a number of other nominations.
