The Heart Goes Last (34 page)

My first thanks must go to Amy Grace Loyd, who was my editor at the online site Byliner, which published a first episode of this story. This later gave rise to three more episodes, known collectively as “Positron,” which appeared on Byliner over the course of 2012–2013. Amy was also kind enough to read
The Heart Goes Last
and to offer some suggestions. Who better than she, who has been well acquainted with the story from the beginning?

My gratitude to my editors: Ellen Seligman of McClelland & Stewart, Penguin Random House (Canada); Nan Talese of Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, Penguin Random House (U.S.A.); and Alexandra Pringle of Bloomsbury (U.K.). And to copy editor Heather Sangster of strongfinish.ca.

Thanks also to my first readers: Jess Atwood Gibson, who always does a thorough reading; Phoebe Larmore, my North American agent; and my U.K. agents, Vivienne Schuster and Karolina Sutton of Curtis Brown.

Also to Betsy Robbins and Sophie Baker of Curtis Brown, who handle foreign rights. Thanks also to Ron Bernstein of ICM. Also to LuAnn Walther of Anchor; Lennie Goodings of Virago; and to my many agents and publishers around the world. And to Alison Rich, Ashley Dunn, Madeleine Feeny, Zoe Hood, and Judy Jacobs.

Thanks to my office assistant, Suzanna Porter; and to Penny Kavanaugh; and to V.J. Bauer, who designed my website at margaretatwood.ca. Also to Sheldon Shoib and Mike Stoyan. And to Michael Bradley and Sarah Cooper, Coleen Quinn and Xiaolan Zhao, and to Evelyn Heskin; and to Terry Carman and the Shock Doctors, for keeping the lights on. And to the Book Hive bookstore in Norwich, England, for reasons known to themselves. And to the Book Hive bookstore in Norwich, England, for reasons known to themselves. Finally, my special thanks to Graeme Gibson, who, though always an inspiration, did not inspire any of the characters in this book. And that’s a good thing.

Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to
The Handmaid’s Tale,
her novels include
Cat’s Eye,
short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize;
Alias Grace
, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy;
The Blind Assassin,
winner of the 2000 Booker Prize;
Oryx and Crake,
short-listed for the 2003 Man Booker Prize;
The Year of the Flood
; and her most recent,
MaddAddam.
She is the recipient of the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award, and lives in Toronto with the writer Graeme Gibson.