The Penelopiad

I get to tell a small anecdote now that everyone else has run out of anything to say.

Penelope, the spouse of Odysseus and the cousin of the stunning Helen of Troy, is presented in Homer's Odyssey as the archetypal obedient wife, and her tale serves as a wise example for all time. After Helen is kidnapped and Odysseus leaves to fight in the Trojan War, Penelope is left alone for twenty years. Despite scandalous accusations, she manages to raise her son, preserve the kingdom of Ithaca, and turn down over a hundred suitors at once. Odysseus murders her suitors and, in an unexpected turn of events, twelve of her maids when he returns home at last, having survived trials, vanquished monsters, and slept with deities.

Margaret Atwood has given Penelope and her twelve hung servants the telling of the old tale with a brilliant modern twist, posing the questions, "What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?" The narrative becomes as wise and sympathetic as it is terrifying and as immensely hilarious as it is unsettling in Atwood's brilliant, lighthearted reworking. She gives Penelope new life and realism with humor and zest, relying on her own famed storytelling and literary talent—and sets out to solve an age-old mystery.