Stone Mattress

Margaret Atwood turns to short fiction for the first time since her 2006 collection, Moral Disorder, with nine tales of acute psychological insight and turbulent relationships bringing to mind her 1996 novel, Alias Grace. 

In these nine dazzlingly inventive and rewarding stories, Margaret Atwood's signature dark humour, playfulness, and deadly seriousness are in abundance. In Freeze-Dried Bridegroom, a man who bids on a storage locker has a surprise. In Lusus Naturae, a woman with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire. In I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth, we remeet Tony, Charis, and Roz from The Robber Bride, but, years later, as their nemesis is seen in an unexpected form. In Torching the Dusties, an elderly lady with Charles Bonnet's syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. In Stone Mattress, a long-ago crime is revenged in the Arctic. 

A collection of highly imaginative short pieces that speak to our times with deadly accuracy. Vintage Atwood creativity, intelligence, and humour: think Alias Grace.