In Margaret Atwood: Starting Out, Rosemary Sullivan explores the trajectory of a remarkable writer's career. She focuses on Atwood's formative years through to the late 1970s, when the major elements of Atwood's life--the publication of Surfacing, Power Politics, and The Edible Woman; her relationship with writer Graeme Gibson; the birth of her daughter; and her focus on Canadian culture--are set in place. A stunning blend of narrative and meditation, of discovery and insight, Margaret Atwood: Starting Out is a major portrait of one of Canada's most provocative writers who is out ahead, throwing back clues about the pleasure and pitfalls of being human.