Margaret Atwood’s novel The Blind Assassin opens with these simple, resonant words: “Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.”

If that opening grabs you, you might consider joining the Santa Maria Public Library’s book club — The Valley Reads — whose selection this month is Atwood’s Blind Assassin, winner of the Booker Prize and the International Association of Crime Writers Dashiell Hammett Award.

The Valley Reads meets from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of each month in the library’s Shepard Hall, 421 S. McClelland St. Next meeting is Tuesday, Feb. 28 in Study Room F, second floor.

Each month a new book is read and discussed, with coffee and snacks served.

To join The Valley Reads, sign-ups are available at the library’s second-floor information desk.

Time magazine named The Blind Assassin the best novel of 2000 and included it in its list of the 100 greatest English-language novels since 1923. It is a story of science fiction told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy back-street rooms.

The catchy opening line is spoken by the character Iris, whose terse account of her sister’s death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura’s story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel.

When readers return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.

Bringing together such seemingly disparate elements, Atwood creates a world of astonishing vision and impact.

Library’s hours are 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The library is closed on Sunday.

Questions may be directed to the library’s reference desk, 925-0994 ext. 8562.

— Mark van de Kamp for city of Santa Maria.