In this post-apocalyptic world, Charmaine and Stan live in their car, constantly on the lookout for drug addicts or gangs trying to rob or murder them. After a massive financial crash, most people can't get a job. So, the young couple enrolls in a futuristic socio-economic programme where they are offered a house and new jobs, and most importantly, safety, although these treats will come with a high price.
Every other month, people from Consilience, their walled-in city, have to move out of their house and into Positron Prison. Charmaine's job in prison she sees as a combination of justice and empathy while Stan fantasizes about their alternate couple, who move into their house when they are at Positron.
Both Charmaine and Stan are cunningly dragged into a political scheme.
What I find most enjoyable in The Heart Goes Last is the way you’ll laugh your heart out before you realize the horror Mrs Atwood is describing.
Charmaine and Stan you could first think of as a pair of losers or muppets easily manipulated about to engage in a predictably vicious community, soon turn out to be highly endearing, unexpectedly brave and incredibly funny creatures.
For once, a dystopia raising paramount issues involving humorous twists.
Interestingly, this novel may be more about love, desire and identity than about the future.