The Penelopiad
- 23 Oct 2025
- 9781837260928
- £20
- 224 pp
- 141×220mm
- 5 Apr 2018
- 9781786892485
- £9.99
- 224 pp
- 129×198mm
- 8 Jun 2012
- 9780857865700
- £17.99
- 3 hrs 20 min
- 20 Nov 2008
- 9781847673589
- £2.99
- 224 pp
In a few words
Celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Margaret Atwood’s iconic tale with this stunning hardback special edition that includes a new foreword by the author and an afterword by Philip Pullman – a volume to be gifted and coveted
In a few words
A feminist retelling, Penelope’s slyly brilliant side of the story, from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Blind Assassin and The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood
In a few words
Now that I’m dead I know everything – The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus retold on audio
In a few words
The iconic retelling of Penelope’s slyly brilliant side of the story, from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Blind Assassin and The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood
As potent as a curse
Explores the very nature of mythic story-telling
Mary Beard
GuardianAtwood takes Penelope's part with tremendous verve . . . she explores the very nature of mythic story-telling
Mary Beard
GuardianAs potent as a curse
As potent as a curse
Fabulous . . . Determinedly irreverent
Atwood takes Penelope's part with tremendous verve . . . she explores the very nature of mythic story-telling
Mary Beard
GuardianAs potent as a curse
More about
the book
20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION
WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR
AND AN AFTERWORD BY PHILIP PULLMAN
Now that all the others have run out of air, it’s my turn to do a little story-making . . . So I’ll spin my own thread.
Penelope . . . immortalised in legend and Greek myth as the devoted wife of the glorious Odysseus, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again as she waits for her husband’s return from the Trojan war.
Now, in Atwood’s wise and witty retelling of the myth, Penelope wanders the underworld, spinning a different kind of thread: her own side of the story – a tale of lust, greed and murder.
More about
the book
Penelope. Immortalised in legend and myth as the devoted wife of the glorious Odysseus, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again as she waits for her husband’s return.
Now Penelope wanders the underworld, spinning a different kind of thread: her own side of the story – a tale of lust, greed and murder.
The Myths series brings together some of the world’s finest writers, each of whom has retold a myth in a contemporary and memorable way. Authors in the series include Karen Armstrong, Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, David Grossman, Natsuo Kirino, Alexander McCall Smith, Philip Pullman, Ali Smith and Jeanette Winterson.
More about
the book
For Penelope, wife of Odysseus, maintaining a kingdom while her husband was off fighting the Trojan war was not a simple business. Already aggrieved that he had been lured away due to the shocking behaviour of her beautiful cousin Helen, Penelope must bring up her wayward son, face down scandalous rumours and keep over a hundred lustful, greedy and bloodthirsty suitors at bay…
And then, when Odysseus finally returns and slaughters the murderous suitors, he brutally hangs Penelope’s twelve beloved maids. What were his motives? And what was Penelope really up to?
Critically acclaimed when it was first published as part of Canongate’s Myth series, and following a very successful adaptation by the RSC, this new edition of The Penelopiad sees Margaret Atwood give Penelope a modern and witty voice to tell her side of the story, and set the record straight for good.
More about
the book
Penelope. Immortalised in legend and myth as the devoted wife of the glorious Odysseus, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again as she waits for her husband’s return.
Now Penelope wanders the underworld, spinning a different kind of thread: her own side of the story – a tale of lust, greed and murder.
Determinedly irreverent
A witty desecration
Pragmatic, clever, domestic, mournful, Penelope is a perfect Atwood heroine
Half Dorothy Parker, half Desperate Housewives
Fabulous . . . Determinedly irreverent
A witty desecration . . . Atwood plays with vigour and ingenuity
Pragmatic, clever, domestic, mournful, Penelope is a perfect Atwood heroine
Half Dorothy Parker, half Desperate Housewives
A witty desecration . . . Atwood plays with vigour and ingenuity
Atwood takes Penelope's part with tremendous verve . . . she explores the very nature of mythic story-telling
Mary Beard
GuardianPragmatic, clever, domestic, mournful, Penelope is a perfect Atwood heroine
Half Dorothy Parker, half Desperate Housewives
Fabulous . . . Determinedly irreverent
A witty desecration . . . Atwood plays with vigour and ingenuity
Pragmatic, clever, domestic, mournful, Penelope is a perfect Atwood heroine
Half Dorothy Parker, half Desperate Housewives
Margaret Atwood
View profileMargaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. In addition to the classic The Handmaid’s Tale, her novels include Cat’s Eye, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy, The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize and Oryx and Crake, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature in 2008. In 2017, The Handmaid’s Tale was adapted for an Emmy-nominated TV series and Alias Grace was adapted into a Netflix Original.
Margaret Atwood
View profileMargaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. In addition to the classic The Handmaid’s Tale, her novels include Cat’s Eye, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy, The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize and Oryx and Crake, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature in 2008. In 2017, The Handmaid’s Tale was adapted for an Emmy-nominated TV series and Alias Grace was adapted into a Netflix Original.
Margaret Atwood
View profileNominated for the inaugural 2005 Man Booker Prize International Prize, which recognizes one writer for his or her outstanding achievement in fiction, Margaret Atwood is the author of more than thirty-five internationally acclaimed works of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her numerous awards include the Governor General’s Award for The Handmaid’s Tale, and the Giller Prize and ItalianIl Premio Litterario Internazionale Mondello for Alias Grace. The Handmaid’s Tale, Cat’s Eye, Alias Grace and Oryx and Crake were all shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, which she won with The Blind Assassin. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada has been awarded the Norwegian Order of Literary Merit and the French Chevalier dans l’Order des Arts et des Lettres and is a Foreign Honorary Member for Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She lives in Toronto.
Margaret Atwood
View profileMargaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. In addition to the classic The Handmaid’s Tale, her novels include Cat’s Eye, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy, The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize and Oryx and Crake, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature in 2008. In 2017, The Handmaid’s Tale was adapted for an Emmy-nominated TV series and Alias Grace was adapted into a Netflix Original.
