'A fascinating, freewheeling examination of ideas of debt, balance and revenge in history, society and literature - Atwood has again struck upon our most current anxieties' The Times'A stimulating, learned, and stylish read from an eminent author writing from a heartfelt perspective ... very provocative' Conrad BlackIn this wide-ranging history of debt Margaret Atwood investigates its many meanings through the ages, from ancient times to the current global financial meltdown. Many of us wonder: how could we have let such a collapse happen? How old or inevitable is this human pattern of debt? From the earliest days of finance in ancient Babylon to the modern machinations of the World Bank, the acclaimed author of The Handmaid's Tale turns her incisive eye onto one of humanity's oldest ideas.Imaginative, topical and insightful, Payback urges us to reconsider our ideas of ownership and debt - before it is too late.