The Penelopiad - (Canons) by Margaret Atwood

Book Synopsis

A fresh take on what follows Homer's The Odyssey by the international best-selling author of The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood.

Now that all the others have run out of air, it's my turn to do a little story-making . . . So I'll spin my own thread.

Penelope. Immortalised in legend and myth as the devoted wife of the glorious Odysseus, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again as she waits for her husband's return. Now Penelope wanders the underworld, spinning a different kind of thread: her own side of the story - a tale of lust, greed and murder.

The Myths series brings together some of the world's finest writers, each of whom has retold a myth in a contemporary and memorable way. Authors in the series include Karen Armstrong, Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, David Grossman, Natsuo Kirino, Alexander McCall Smith, Philip Pullman, Ali Smith and Jeanette Winterson.

Review Quotes

"Determinedly irreverent" -New York Times

"Atwood's brilliance emerges in the skillful way she's woven her own research on the anthropological underpinnings of Home's epic into the patterns of her own stylized version of the poem. If finally this version of Penelope's life doesn't fully shift our own understanding of Odysseus' return, it does make for a fascinating and really attractive version of this old, old story, a creation tale about the founding of our civilization meant to be heard over and over and over. Or as Atwood's Penelope would have it, woven and undone, woven and undone, and woven again." -Alan Cheuse, NPR

"Margaret Atwood's "The Penelopiad" shifts the focus away from Odysseus, to put his long-suffering wife, Penelope, and others of less consequence into the foreground. . The plight of the maids...becomes its own visually stunning and unforgettable story in Atwood's hands." -New York Times Book Review

"As potent as a curse" -Sunday Times

"Explores the very nature of mythic story-telling" -Mary Beard

"A witty desecration" -Observer

"Pragmatic, clever, domestic, mournful, Penelope is a perfect Atwood heroine" -Spectator

"Half Dorothy Parker, half Desperate Housewives" -Independent

About the Author

Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. In addition to the classic The Handmaid's Tale, her novels include Cat's Eye, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy, The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize and Oryx and Crake, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature in 2008. In 2017, The Handmaid's Tale was adapted for an Emmy-nominated TV series and Alias Grace was adapted into a Netflix Original.