In Margaret Atwood’s acclaimed novel, an artist returning to her home city is consumed by images of the lavish cruelties she endured there as a child.

Elaine Risley, a painter, returns to Toronto, the city of her youth, to find herself overwhelmed by her past. Memories of childhood - unbearable betrayal and cruelties - surface relentlessly, forcing her to confront the spectre of Cordelia, once her best friend and tormentor, who has haunted her for forty years.

Shortlisted
The Booker Prize 1989
Published by
Bloomsbury
Publication date

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Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

About the Author

Margaret Atwood is the world-renowned author of more than 50 books of fiction, poetry and critical essays.
More about Margaret Atwood

Other nominated books by Margaret Atwood

The Testaments
Prize winner
Oryx and Crake
The Blind Assassin
Prize winner
Alias Grace
The Handmaid's Tale