Old Babes in the Wood

Author: Atwood, Margaret

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 7 March 2023 by Vintage Publishing (Chatto & Windus) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 272 pages
241 x 163 x 28 | 478g

Atwoods first new fiction publication since The Testaments, this deeply personal collection includes a stunning sequence that follows a married couple as they travel the road together, the moments big and small that make up a long life of love -- and what comes afterThe stories explore the full warp and weft of experience, from two best friends disagreeing about their shared past, to the right way to stop someone from choking; from a daughter determining if her mother really is a witch, to what to do with inherited relics such as World War II parade swords.

They feature beloved cats, a confused snail, Martha Gellhorn, George Orwell, philosopher-astronomer-mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria, a cabal of elderly female academics, and an alien tasked with retelling human fairy tales.

The glorious range of Atwoods creativity and humanity is on full beam in these tales, which by turns delight, illuminate and quietly devastate.

Gripping... a writer in full possession of her powers Financial TimesThese reflections on marriage, mortality and many-tentacled aliens show Atwoods mastery of the short form GuardianShes Margaret Atwood, and she can do anything Ann PatchettThere is no greater living writer Daily TelegraphThe outstanding novelist of our age Sunday Times A living legend New York Times Book Review