Living in West Berlin

• While writing THT, Atwood was living in West Berlin, which was still encircled by the Berlin Wall
• The soviet empire was still strongly in place and was not to crumble for another 5 years
• 2017 New York Time Interview, Sonic Booms -

  'Every Sunday East German Air Force made sonic booms to remind us how close they were'
• 2017 New York Times Interview- Visit behind iron curtain

  ' I experienced the wariness, the feeling of being spied on, the silences, [...] the oblique ways in which people may convey information'
• 2017 New York Times Interview - disappearing people

  "This used to belong to... then they disappeared." I heard such stories many times'
• 2017 New York Times Interview - Consciousness WWII

  'come to consciousness during World War II I knew that established orders could vanish overnight. Change could be as fast as lightning.'
• 2017 New York Times Interview - Can't happen here

  '"It can't happen here" could not be depended on anything could happen anywhere given the circumstances.'