Bluebeard's Egg - Hardcover

"A book to be read and re-read, to be talked about and savored." -"London Free Press" "Margaret Atwood renders visual, aural, and tactile events in such crisp, surprising language that her images crackle off the page." -"Washington Post" "The depth and complexity of Atwood's critique of contemporary society are stunning." -"Ms." "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" (U.K.) "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" "This collection of short stories shows her genius with all its sparkle and humour." -"Cosmopolitan" "Atwood is nothing if not clairvoyant." -Kingston "Whig-Standard" "Once again Atwood brings her poetic talents, her acute clarity of perception, and her sardonic humour to an examination of the foibles and follies of modern life." -David Staines, "Canadian Literature" "In this impressive collection of astute and reverberating stories, she adds to her already considerable stature as a writer." -"Winnipeg Free Press" "Atwood's prose in "Bluebeard's Egg" is powerful, elegant, and mellifluous to an extraordinary degree." -"Quill & Quire" "An acute and poetic observer of the eternal, universal, rum relationships between men and women." -"The Times" (U.K.) "From the Hardcover edition."ompelling tale of adolescence. . . . Ki

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.