Old Babes in the Wood

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

A dazzling collection of fifteen stories from Margaret Atwood, the internationally acclaimed, award-winning author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments

Margaret Atwood is celebrated as one of the most gifted storytellers in the world.

These 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.
At the heart of the collection is 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 after.

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

©2023 Margaret Atwood (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

Vitality and virtuosity have been the hallmarks of Atwoods literary career - and, as Old Babes in the Wood, published in her 84th year, shows, triumphantly continue to be so... Mortality shadows the book. Vivacity makes it shine
Sunday Times
If you consider yourself and Atwood fan and have only read her novels: Get your act together. You've been missing out
New York Times Book Review
Atwood shows mastery of the short form . . . [The] stories unwrap what TS Eliot called the gifts reserved for age. There are chips and fragments of lives, full of sass and sadness
Guardian
A gripping read... Old Babes in the Wood is further evidence of a writer in full possession of her powers. Atwood will never struggle to find readers, but this collection really is worth their attention
Financial Times
Atwood... is a brilliant and spiky storyteller who can seamlessly turn big issues into page-turners... These are Atwood's most personal tales so far
Sunday Times
The Booker winner writes beautifully about ageing and death . . . the silence after the best stories here is akin to how she describes the aftermath of a calamitous event
The Times
Nell and Tig are the ageing couple whose small dramas and deep feelings bookend this new story collection... brought achingly to life and sharpened by Atwood's dry wit and wily wisdom
Mail on Sunday
To be honest, we would read anything this woman writes, but Old Babes in the Wood is one of her best
Glamour
This set of interweaving short stories is a perfect way to get a more bite-sized read... There's a story in here that everyone can relate to
Woman & Home
The inimitable author of The Handmaid's Tail is spectacular at short stories
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