MaddAddam

MaddAddam is a 2010 science fiction novel by Margaret Atwood. It is the final volume of the MaddAddam Trilogy, which began with Oryx and Crake (2003) and The Year of the Flood (2009). Set in a near-future Earth after a man-made plague has wiped out most of humanity, MaddAddam follows a diverse group of survivors as they navigate the consequences of genetic engineering, environmental collapse, and corporate power.

The narrative expands on the world created in the earlier books by bringing together storylines from the trilogy and moving toward the emergence of a new community. Central elements include Craker settlements—genetically engineered humans—as well as remnants of the God’s Gardeners and other post-catastrophe groups. Through multiple viewpoints, the novel investigates how memory, myth, and knowledge are preserved and transmitted after civilization has fallen, and what responsibility the living have toward the dead and toward future generations.

Themes include the ethics of biotechnology, the dangers of unfettered capitalism, ecological catastrophe, and the possibility of rebuilding society with a more cooperative, ecologically informed ethos. MaddAddam is often read as a synthesis of the trilogy’s questions about human invention, complicity, resilience, and the stories societies tell themselves to face catastrophe.

Publication and reception: Released in 2010, MaddAddam completed Atwood’s trilogy and contributed to discussions of speculative fiction, science, and ethics. It is commonly studied for its interdisciplinary engagement with science, language, and myth.