A new twist on the zombie tale is now on Wattpad! Margaret Atwood and Naomi Alderman have partnered up to bring readers their delicious take on the undead. Check out “The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home,” exclusively on Wattpad.
Want more zombie love? Find out what Margaret Atwood and Naomi Alderman have to say about the walking dead in our Q&A below:
Q: What is your favorite zombie virtue?
Naomi Alderman : They are tenacious. Very admirable.
Margaret Atwood: They don’t prattle at the breakfast table when one is trying to read the paper.
Q: What are your favorite qualities in a zombie?
Alderman: Other than tenacity? I suppose the moaning. It’s considerate of them to let us know they’re coming.
Atwood: They will never say, “I love you” and not mean it. (In fact they will never say, “I love you” at all, but that’s a different issue.)
Q: What are your least favorite qualities in a zombie?
Alderman: Some might say the consumption of human flesh. I’m going to have to go with their tendency to show off. Constantly overexposed, can’t turn down a movie deal, barely ever off our screens.
Atwood: You can’t take them anywhere. They’ll absolutely ruin a chic penthouse drinks event.
Q: Faced with death, would you opt to become a zombie?
Alderman: Faced with death I would definitely opt to not die.
Atwood: Not if I had werewolf or vampire options. Or even corpse options.
Q: Which zombies in fiction stand out for you?
Alderman: I love the man turning into a zombie in Zombie Haiku. Very poignant.
Atwood: Do movies count? The Night of the Living Dead (the original) is still outstanding.
Q: What is your favorite zombie food?
Alderman: Some people might find this a bit “hippy” and “new age” of me, but I do not eat human flesh. But I do enjoy a nice hug with a human being. So my favourite zombie food is hugs.
Atwood: Cerveaux Bradbury, façon patte de singe. Barring that, whatever’s lying around.
Q: Is the world a better or worse place with zombies?
Alderman: I’m going to have to say worse. I know that’s controversial, but I have to stick with it. Even though they bring families together, and improve cardio fitness among those who survive their initial attacks, I am solidly anti-zombie.
Atwood: If you’re a rat, better. If you’re anyone else, worse.
Q: What would you do if a loved one turned into a zombie?
Alderman: I would shoot them in the head or club them to death. Out of respect.
Atwood: Get the pruning hook.
Q: How do you most resemble a zombie?
Alderman: In my love of other people’s brains.
Atwood: Wait ten years and see. (The loss of memory? The drooling? The vacant stare?)
Q: What zombie characteristic would you most like to have?
Alderman: I guess the immortality would be good? Although maybe not forever. Temporary immortality.
Atwood: None of them, to be truthful. But elves, now: that’s a different story.
Read “The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home” on Wattpad. A new chapter will be uploaded every week!
Okie’s fifteen. She lives in New York. She’s got a few problems: she’s failing geography, her dad’s a wimp, and her mother, Sumatra, is a stone cold bitch. But things get a lot worse when Sumatra turns into a zombie and eats Okie’s dad.
Clio, Okie’s grandmother, lives in Toronto; but since the zombie apocalypse, Toronto’s a lot further away than it used to be. Clio suggests that Okie transport Sumatra across the border, because family is family. But coaching Okie by cellphone isn’t easy, and Clio has some zombies of her own to contend with. Luckily she has some garden tools.
Naomi Alderman and Margaret Atwood team up for this unusual two-hander. Encompassing love, death, sex, and the meaning of family, The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home will surprise, delight, and convince you of the vital importance of keeping ready supplies of rhubarb and mini-wieners in your freezer at all times.