Margaret Atwood's latest novel, The Blind Assassin, which won the internationally prestigious Booker Prize and at the time of this writing was nominated for the Governor General's Award for literature, is the point of departure for reviewing the career of one of Canada's leading novelists. As a strong model of Canadian literature and a major player on the literary scene internationally, Atwood and her work also represent an arts industry in which Canada has excelled in what many critics and observers see as a typically Canadian fashion. Atwood's work especially integrates historical detail that emphasizes the Canadian experience. An interview with the author reveals issues and themes related to literature in general and CanLit in particular, and explores the style of the Canadian genre and of the status that Canadians ascribe to their best fiction writers.