The Year of the Flood

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 has a reputation for sexually assaulting and murdering the women in his employ. 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 sex worker 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.

• Ren, a trapeze dancer and sex worker 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, escaping a dangerous stalker by working in a high-end spa.

Oryx, Crake (aka Glenn) and Jimmy appear in minor 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. [5]

• Pilar, Eve Six ("the Fungus") – Instructor: Bees and 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

Atwood's tour to promote the book included choral performances of 14 religious hymns that appear in the book.[6] They were also released as a CD.[7]

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.[8] "Amanda Payne" and "Saint Allan Sparrow" were also named by auction winners.

The novel was generally well-received; reviewers noted that while the plot was sometimes chaotic,[9] the novel's imperfections meshed well with the flawed reality the book was trying to reflect.[10] The Daily Telegraph commented that "Margaret Atwood is genuinely inventive, rather than merely clever".[9]

In 2010, the novel was longlisted as a candidate for the 2011 International Dublin Literary Award,[11] 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.

• Doomsday cult

• Official Website