Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth

Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth By Margaret Atwood Anansi; 230 pages

In the teeth of a global recession, there are a lot of people thinking and writing about debt. But few of them are Booker Prize--winning novelists, and that's what makes Payback--equal parts philosophical essay, literary criticism and historical narrative--a compelling project from the start. The author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin examines the science of give-and-take, from evolution (studies of chimpanzees' innate concept of fair play) to religion (themes of redemption in Christian theology) to literature--where Atwood realizes that debt drives many a plot...

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