Margaret Atwood books in order
Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pépiniériste and inventor
- Born
- 1939
- Country
- Canada
- Books
- 78
- Series
- 2
Margaret Atwood has published 24 novels, 1 novella, 19 short story collections, 7 non-fiction books, 2 children's books, 18 poetry collections and 7 other books, beginning with The Edible Woman (1969). The 2 series include MaddAddam (3 books, starting with Oryx and Crake) and The Handmaid's Tale (2 books, starting with The Handmaid's Tale). The best-known is The Handmaid's Tale (1985). The latest is The Climate Book (2022).
Updated September 2026
MaddAddam books in order (3)Series page
Reading order: 1 Oryx and Crake (2003) · 2 The Year of the Flood (2009) · 3 MaddAddam (2013)
- 1.
Oryx and Crake (2003)
- 2.
The Year of the Flood (Sep 2009)
- 3.
MaddAddam (Aug 2013)
Where to start with Margaret Atwood
Start here
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood's most-read book and the first of the 2 The Handmaid's Tale books.
Highest rated
Oryx and Crake
Rated 4.2 out of 5 by 48 readers.
Shortest way in
The Penelopiad
One of the most-read, at about 191 pages.
Standalone novels in order
The Edible Woman (1969)
Surfacing (1972)
Lady Oracle (1976)
Life Before Man (1979)
Bodily Harm (1981)
Cat's Eye (Sep 1988)
Conversations (1990)
The Robber Bride (Sep 1993)
The Labrador Fiasco (1996)
Two Solicitudes (1996)
Virtually Now (1996)
Alias Grace (Sep 1996)
The Blind Assassin (Sep 2000)
Negotiating with the Dead (2002)
In Other Worlds (2011)
On Writers and Writing (2014)
The Heart Goes Last (2015)
Hag-Seed (2016)
The Climate Book (Oct 2022), with Naomi Klein and Amitav Ghosh
Novellas in order
The Penelopiad (2005)
Short story collections in order
Dancing Girls & Other Stories (1977)
True Stories (1981)
Bluebeard's Egg (1983)
Murder in the Dark (1983)
Stories by Canadian Women (1984)
The Secret Self (1985)
From Ink Lake (1990)
Wilderness Tips (1991)
Good Bones (1992)
Coming of Age (1993)
Women of the Century (1993)
Good Bones and Simple Murders (1994)
The Wild Woman (1994)
The Oxford Book of Adventure Stories (1995)
Story of a Nation (2001)
Moral Disorder (2006)
The Tent (2006)
I'm with the Bears (2011)
Stone Mattress (2014)
Non-fiction in order
Second Words (1982)
Strange Things (1995)
The Vintage Book of Canadian Memoirs (2001)
Moving Targets (2004)
Curious Pursuits (2005)
Writing with Intent (2005)
Payback (2008)
Children's books in order
Up in the Tree (1978)
Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut (1995)
Poetry in order
The Circle Game (1964)
The Animals in That Country (1968)
Lobsticks (1970)
Procedures for Underground (1970)
The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970)
Power Politics (1971)
You Are Happy (1974)
Two-Headed Poems (1978)
The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English (1982)
Interlunar (1984)
The Oxford Book of War Poetry (1984)
Poems 1976-1986 (1986)
Barbed Lyres (1990)
Morning in the Burned House (1995)
Eating Fire (2005)
The Door (2007)
Poetry (2012)
Dearly (2020)
Other books in order
Double Persephone (1961)
Mothers and Daughters in the Twentieth Century (1999)
Burning Questions (2022)
My Evil Mother (2022)
We Are Still Here (2022)
Old Babes in the Wood (2023)
Book of Lives (Nov 2025)
Film and TV adaptations
- The Handmaid's Tale (1990)Film · from The Handmaid's Tale
- The Handmaid's TaleTV · from The Handmaid's Tale
- Alias GraceTV · from Alias Grace
- The TestamentsTV · from The Testaments
About Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Her best-known work is the 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale. Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her writing, including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Order of Canada, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award for literature, and the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards. A number of her works have been adapted for film and television.
Biography from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Margaret Atwood FAQ
- How many books has Margaret Atwood written?
- Margaret Atwood has published 24 novels, 1 novella, 19 short story collections, 7 non-fiction books, 2 children's books, 18 poetry collections and 7 other books that we list, as of September 2026.
- What order should I read Margaret Atwood's books in?
- Read each series in its own order: start MaddAddam with Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid's Tale with The Handmaid's Tale. The other books stand alone and can be read in any order.
- What is Margaret Atwood's latest book?
- The Climate Book (2022).
- What is Margaret Atwood's most famous book?
- The Handmaid's Tale (1985) is Margaret Atwood's most widely read book.
- Are Margaret Atwood's books connected?
- 5 books belong to 2 series (MaddAddam and The Handmaid's Tale); the other 73 books stand alone.
- Which Margaret Atwood books have been adapted?
- 3 books have been adapted for film or TV, including The Handmaid's Tale (film, 1990), Alias Grace (TV) and The Testaments (TV).
Authors like Margaret Atwood
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Neal Stephenson
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Susanna Clarke
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Pierce Brown
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Philip K. Dick
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Alice Munro
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Sources: book lists and dates from Wikidata and Open Library, ratings from Open Library readers. Last updated September 2026.