Stone Mattress: Nine Wicked Tales

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE HANDMAID''S TALE, THE TESTAMENTS AND ALIAS GRACE

''Dark and witty tales from the gleefully inventive Margaret Atwood. Witty verve, imaginative inventiveness and verbal sizzle vivify every page'' Sunday Times

A recently widowed fantasy writer is guided through a stormy winter evening by the voice of her late husband. An elderly lady with Charles Bonnet syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. A woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire, and a crime committed long ago is revenged in the Arctic via a 1.9 billion-year-old stromatolite.

''A collection of nine acerbic, mischievous, gulpable short stories'' Harper''s Bazaar

''Atwood''s prose is so sharp and sly that the effect is bracing rather than bleak'' Guardian

''[Look at these tales] as eight icily refreshing arsenic Popsicles followed by a baked Alaska laced with anthrax, all served with impeccable style and aplomb. Enjoy!'' Ursula K. Le Guin, Financial Times

''Atwood has characters here close to death, dead already, unwittingly doomed or - in one memorable case - freeze-dried; but her own curiosity, enthusiasm and sheer storytelling panache remain alive and kicking'' Independent