Natasha Lester makes us read THE BLIND ASSASSIN...and we have no regrets.

🎥 Watch it now

Welcome back to Reading Between Deadlines, the podcast where we read with the same chaotic energy we usually reserve for missing deadlines and burning toast. This week kicks off our brand new format—where we invite a guest author to join the madness and unpack a book they adore (but one we haven’t read).

Our first brave volunteer? The internationally bestselling author and all-round delight, Natasha Lester!

Together, we dive into The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood—a Booker Prize-winning epic that's part family saga, part sci-fi story within a story, and part... existential crisis?

In this episode, we cover:

📚 Would The Blind Assassin even get published today at this length, or would an editor bring a chainsaw?

👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨 Iris and Alex: toxic, tragic, or just two messy humans fumbling toward love?

🚗 The ultimate opening line.

📖 The absolute sorcery of Atwood's layered structure (seriously, how did she pull it off?)

👩‍👧 Mothers, daughters, and all the messy love (and resentment) in between.

🍵 Plus: Natasha's secret weapon for writing books that make people sob.

And, of course, we rate it: Kiss, Kill, or Marry?

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⏰ Timestamps

00:30 – This week’s pick: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

02:00 – Natasha Lester joins us and we try (badly) not to fangirl

05:00 – The ultimate opening line and a quick Margaret Atwood bio roast

10:00 – Kiss, Kill, Marry: Will The Blind Assassin survive the chaos?

15:00 – The slow-burn beginning: brilliant atmosphere or slightly snoozy?

20:00 – The sci-fi sections: genius storytelling or skip fodder?

26:00 – Writing structure envy: how Atwood juggles five timelines like a boss

32:00 – How The Blind Assassin inspired Natasha’s debut novel (and her career)

38:00 – Natasha’s wide reading taste: from Margaret Atwood to Emily Henry (yes, really!)

42:00 – Memoirs, crying in books, and the ethical nightmare of Facebook

50:00 – What Natasha’s reading next—and which books she wishes she’d written

👉 Listen now, subscribe, and tell us—did you swoon for The Blind Assassin?

Recommendations from

Natasha Lester

:

• Poetry by Margaret Atwood

• Possession by AS Byatt

• Book Lovers by Emily Henry

• Educated by Tara Westover

• The Safe Keep by Yael van der Wouden

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

• Careless People by Sarah Wynn Williams

• The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

• Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

• We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker