玛格丽特·阿特伍德 |The Heart Goes Last 心劫

“The Heart Goes Last” is a contemporary dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood which follows the efforts of husband and wife Stan and Charmaine to survive and help bring down the Positron Project, supposedly aimed at ending unemployment and crime but in reality performing illegal organ harvesting and sexually altering the minds of people. When the novel begins, Stan and Charmaine are living in their car somewhere in the American Northeast, having both lost their good jobs to an economic downturn. Charmaine takes work at a local bar, where she sees a commercial for a call for applications for the Positron Project. Pay, work, and a good house are promised. Charmaine convinces Stan to apply with her, but Stan’s criminal brother, Conor, warns them about attending. Conor says he has heard bad things about the program, but Stan and Charmaine are desperate to stop living in their car.

Stan and Charmaine apply to - and are accepted into - the Positron Project. The CEO of the project, Ed, explains the Positron Project as seeking to eliminate unemployment and crime. The Project is occurring in the revamped town of Consilience, which includes the newly-constructed Positron Prison. For alternating months, people will spend the month either in Positron Prison, or in Consilience. Those in the prison will work for pay at jobs that range from agriculture to cutting-edge robotics, while those living on the outside in houses in the town will work for pay doing jobs dedicated to maintaining the prison, the town, and daily life in general.