Margaret Atwood is writing a new book, but you won't be able to read it this century. The author, whose works include speculative fiction classics The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake, will be storing her next novel for 100 years in a library in Norway as part of a project organized by Scottish artist Katie Paterson.
A new book will enter the library every year for a century
Paterson's Future Library began this summer with the planting of 1,000 trees in Nordmarka, near the Norwegian capital of Oslo. Paterson's project, to which Atwood is the first contributor, will see an author contribute a book each year for the next 100 years. Each one will go into storage in a specially designed room in Oslo's Deichmanske public library before being published in 2114. The room is to be lined with wood from the planted trees, and will also contain a printing press, so people of the near future who might not have held a paper book will have a way to produce a physical copy of the texts contained within.
Participating authors' names and the titles of their stored stories will be displayed on the wall of the room, but Atwood's wouldn't divulge any information about her contribution in an interview with The Guardian. "Wild horses would not drag it out of me," the Canadian writer said. "But I will say that I've bought some special archival paper, which will not decay in its sealed box over 100 years."
