A delightfully pointed m?lange of fictional pieces from one of the world’s most acclaimed and incisive authors, The Tent is a sparkling addition to Margaret Atwood’s always masterful work.

Here Atwood pushes form once again, with meditations on warlords, pet heaven, and aging homemakers. She gives a sly pep talk to the ambitious young; writes about the disconcerting experience of looking at old photos of ourselves; and examines the boons and banes of orphanhood. Accompanied by her own playful illustrations, Atwood’s droll humor and keen insight make each piece full of clarity and grace. Prescient and personal, delectable and tart, The Tent reflects one of our wittiest authors at her best.

“Delectably astringent. . . . These succinct, acridly funny pieces. . . deliver a heady punch.”

Los Angeles Times

“She has a cool wit, sometimes brutally satirical, always entertaining, and serious to the bone.”

Katherine Dunn, The Oregonian

“The Tent exposes the nuts and bolts of the tortuous creative process....The book powerfully exhibits the human consciousness in conversation with itself, struggling to establish a voice amid the cacophony.”

The Observer

Margaret Atwood is one of the world's most esteemed authors, a writer of wide range--novels, stories, essays, criticism. She now brings readers a collection of smart and entertaining fictional essays punctuated with her own wonderful illustrations. Chilling and witty, these highly imaginative, Atwoodian pieces speak on a broad range of subjects, reflecting the times we live in with deadly accuracy and knife-edge precision.

Herein Atwood gives a sly pep talk to the ambitious young; writes about the disconcerting experience of looking at old photos of ourselves; gives us Horatio's real views on Hamlet; and examines the boons and banes of orphanhood. "Bring Back Mom: An Invocation" explores what life was really like for the "perfect" homemakers of days gone by, and in "The Animals Reject Their Names," she runs history backward, with surprising results.

Prescient and personal, delectable and tart, "The Tent" is vintage Atwood.

Atwood is one of the world's most esteemed authors, a writer of wide range--novels, stories, essays, criticism. She now brings readers a collection of smart and entertaining fictional essays punctuated with her own wonderful illustrations.

Margaret Atwood's books have been published in over thirty-five countries. She is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to 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 her most recent, Oryx and Crake — shortlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize. She lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.