Margaret Atwood reads on stage in London, while a performer sings hymns from her novel The Year of the Flood. (CBC)

Margaret Atwood is putting a new stamp on the book tour with the launch of her latest novel, The Year of the Flood.

The tour, currently rolling out through Britain, features Atwood reading from the work, while local musicians and performers interpret the "green hymns" that she created for the book.

The road show, which has a strong environmental theme, aims to recreate some of the post-apocalyptic world Atwood writes about in The Year of the Flood, which focuses on a fringe religious group after a disaster that wiped out most of humanity.

"We're doing eight in the U.K., each of them in a different way," Atwood told CBC News.

"Each one of them, it's local cast, local singing group, local direction, local design. I will not know until I get there what they're going to do. It's a total surprise for me each time."

Atwood said part of the idea is to reduce the impact on the environment by using local players and resources.

In Manchester a group of lesbian and gay singers interpreted her work like a kind of "funky church choir," the London Telegraph said in its coverage of her tour.

In London's St. James's Church, the players came down the aisle carrying glowing blue orbs, followed by Atwood.

Los Angeles-based composer Orville Stoeber has set the book's 14 sets of lyrics to music and they are being interpreted differently in each city.

"This is what happens with books, because each reader reads a book differently, so of course each city is going to present a book differently," Atwood said.

The Year of the Flood is set in the same post-apocalyptic world as Atwood's earlier novel Oryx and Crake. The story follows two women, one a trapeze-dancer and member of the religious sect God's Gardeners, and another who is barricaded inside a luxurious spa.

Atwood also is blogging, sending out a Twitter feed and using other social media to advance the book.

Her tour for the book will feature six Canadian stops, including Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Kingston, Ont., and Sudbury, Ont.

Atwood said she's looking forward to the Kingston reading, where organizers are creating finger food inspired by the novel. "I've heard a bit of what they're doing and it sounds really right out there," she said.