The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus

A feminist retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey by the international best-selling author of The Handmaid’s Tale.

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. Immortalized 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 is a tale of lust, greed and murder.

Atwood breathes new life into the classic story by giving a voice to Penelope and daring to ask what led to the hanging of twelve maids.