High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth is a non-fiction book written by Margaret Atwood, about the nature of debt, for the 2008 Massey Lectures. Each of the book`s five chapters was delivered as a one hour lecture in a different Canadian city, beginning in St. John`s, Newfoundland, on October 12 and ending in Toronto on November 1. The lectures were broadcast on CBC Radio One`s Ideas November 10–14. The book was published by House of Anansi Press, both in paperback and in a limited edition hardcover.