The most prestigious and eagerly anticipated non-fiction series of the year teams up with legendary poet, novelist and essayist Margaret Atwood to deliver a surprising look at the topic of debt. It’s a timely subject for our current period of economic upheaval, caused by the collapse of a system of interlocking debts. In her wide ranging, entertaining, and imaginative approach to the subject, Atwood proposes that debt is like air — something we take for granted until things go wrong. And then, while gasping for breath, we become very interested in it.

Payback is not about practical debt management or high finance, although it does touch upon these subjects. Rather, it is an investigation into the idea of debt as an ancient and central motif in religion, literature, and the structure of human societies.