Bluebeard’s Egg

Description

In this acclaimed collection of twelve stories, Margaret Atwood probes the territory of childhood memories and the casual cruelty men and women inflict upon each other and themselves. She looks behind the familiar world of family summers at remote lakes, ordinary lives, and unexpected loves, and she unearths profound truths. A melancholy, teenage love is swept away by a Canadian hurricane, while a tired, middle-aged affection is rekindled by the spectacle of rare Jamaican birds; a potter tries to come to terms with the group of poets who so smother her that she is driven into the arms of her accountant; and, in the title story, the Bluebeard legend is retold as an ironic tale of marital deception. Stark and scathing at times, humorous and compassionate at others, Bluebeard’s Egg confirms once again Atwood’s reputation as the pre-eminent chronicler of our times.“Atwood displays polished craftsmanship and rare insight in the stories in this collection. They are the work of an author in full control of her considerable talents.” —Globe and Mail

“An acute and poetic observer of the eternal, universal, rum relationships between men and women.” —The Times (UK)

“Margaret Atwood renders visual, aural, and tactile events in such crisp, surprising language that her images crackle off the page.” —Washington Post

“A book to be read and re-read, to be talked about and savored.” —London Free Press

“Her stories are sophisticated, reticent, ornate, stark, supple, stiff, savage or forgiving; they are exactly what she wants them to be. They are stories from the prime of life.” —Times Literary Supplement

“An outstanding correspondent on the war between the sexes writes as wittily as ever on the hopes and shortcomings of women who bake for poets, sleep with their accountants, attribute their preference for awful men to fearlessness, and don’t know how much they scare their own mothers.” —The Observer

“This collection of short stories shows her genius with all its sparkle and humour.” —Cosmopolitan

“In this impressive collection of astute and reverberating stories, she adds to her already considerable stature as a writer.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“The depth and complexity of Atwood’s critique of contemporary society are stunning.” —Ms.MARGARET ATWOOD is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, now an award-winning TV series, her novels include The Testaments, which was the winner of the 2019 Booker Prize; Cat’s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; The MaddAddam Trilogy; The Heart Goes Last; and Hag-Seed. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award. In 2019, she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature. She lives in Toronto.US

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