“Old Babes in the Wood” comes a decade after the last collection of short stories was published.

Canadian writer and novelist Margaret Atwood cemented a successful literary career spanning six decades. At the beginning of March 2023, he published his first fiction text since “Wills”. It is “Old Maids in the Woods”a book consisting of 15 stories, in which he not only presents his already classic futuristic dystopias, but also includes stories about love, reproduction and widowhood.

Some of the stories included in this new version have already been published in the new yorker and in the magazine The New York Times. The collection of “Old Maids in the Woods” Is divided into three parts. the first tale, Tig and Nelland the last, Nell and Tig They focus on the members of a couple, who are responsible for analyzing what the people who left their mark and even their thoughts did and felt.

In these stories, far from those stories that have characterized her, she takes it upon herself to explore the minutiae of life through a deep and sincere look at each story. In Free for alla new virus hits the world, amidst this apocalyptic panorama, the uninfected are forced to reproduce in arranged marriages.

"Old Maids in the Woods" It was originally released in English under the Penguin Random House label.
“Old Babes in the Wood” was originally released in English on the Penguin Random House label.

For the second part, Atwood present my bad mother, a section that stands out among the others because the author brings together eight stories with different voices, themes and formats. The writer builds the stories from imaginary interviews, stories told by extraterrestrial beings and even the circle of life or a snail trapped in a woman’s body. These tales confirm that the playful and irreverent spirit of Atwood still intact at 83 years old.

In death of smudgie features The Death of a Cat, a story through which he portrays what follows the loss of a pet. In my bad mothertakes on the task of following the mother-daughter relationship over the years and shows how, as adults, many people return to their parents.

In history The interview of deaththe Canadian writer holds a “interview” with the author george orwell through a trance medium. A tribute which, over the course of the words, becomes the very deconstruction of Orwellwhom he shows as an amusing man with whom he discusses issues such as annulment, anti-vaccination and even a coup.

Margaret Atwood spoke at the Sanders Theater about her new short story collection.
Margaret Atwood spoke at the Sanders Theater about her new short story collection.

On the other hand, in Impatient Griseldaan octopus-like being of extraterrestrial origin takes center stage. Atwood explores in the translated voice of this being the feeling of estrangement and lack of communication; bad toothfollows the friendship of two old men, while one of them insists on asking why his friend had an affair with another man with bad teeth, something that never happened.

the tales of Old Maids in the Woods touch the lives of strangers and acquaintances, such as the one featuring Hypatia of Alexandria. In Death by Clamshell she is in charge of recounting her own murder, while reflecting on the evolution of her thought over the centuries; In metempsychosis, the narrator is a snail whose soul has jumped into a human body, that of a woman, a story in which the author exposes feeling out of place and living in the past.

The stories brush the boundaries of realism and fiction, intelligently tackling modern society, tackling recurring 21st century themes such as love, the importance of language, the paradigm shift. But it also crosses realities like the motherhood of the political and social spectrum. Old Maids in the Woods comes a decade after the last short story collection, but Antwood It shows that you haven’t lost contact.

Continue reading:

‘Jim never started screaming he was the Lizard King’: Robby Krieger debunks The Doors and Jim Morrison in his biopic
LGBT+ activist Daria Serenko confronts the Russian state with a novel full of invisible female voices
A true story about the Chilean coup inspires new novel by Patricia Stambuk

Categorized in: