20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION
WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR AND AN AFTERWORD BY PHILIP PULLMAN
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 Greek myth as the devoted wife of the glorious Odysseus, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again as she waits for her husband’s return from the Trojan war.
Now, in Atwood’s wise and witty retelling of the myth, Penelope wanders the underworld, spinning a different kind of thread: her own side of the story – a tale of lust, greed and murder.
Reviews for The Penelopiad
“As potent as a curse” Sunday Times
“Explores the very nature of mythic story-telling” Mary Beard guardian
“Determinedly irreverent” new York Times
“A witty desecration” Observer
“Pragmatic, clever, domestic, mournful, Penelope is a perfect Atwood heroine” Spectator

The New Life : a Granta Best of Young British Novelist 2023


