From the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Taleand The Testaments—one of Margaret Atwood’s most unforgettable characters lurks at the center of this intricate novel like a spider in a web. The glamorous, irresistible, unscrupulous Zenia is nothing less than a fairy-tale villain in the memories of her former friends.
Roz, Charis, and Tony—university classmates decades ago—were reunited at Zenia’s funeral and have met monthly for lunch ever since, obsessively retracing the destructive swath she once cut through their lives. A brilliantly inventive fabulist, Zenia had a talent for exploiting her friends’ weaknesses, wielding intimacy as a weapon and cheating them of money, time, sympathy, and men.
But one day, five years after her funeral, they are shocked to catch sight of Zenia: even her death appears to have been yet another fiction. As the three women plot to confront their larger-than-life nemesis, Atwood proves herself a gleefully acute observer of the treacherous shoals of friendship, trust, desire, and power.
"Funny, thoughtful, moving. . . . Atwood's plotting is masterful, and her humor is razor-edged, sexy, and raucous." —The Washington Post
“Vividly written, acutely observed and . . . very possibly the most intelligently tongue-in-cheek novel of the year.” —Salman Rushdie,The Independent
“Moving amid these three women, touching up their portraits with one perfect detail after another, conjuring Zenia from their memories and tears, Atwood is in her glory. What a treasure she is.” —Newsweek
"Margaret Atwood continues her long-running roll, offering us the good fortune of yet another disturbing and brilliantly conceived work of fiction." —Chicago Tribune
From the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Taleand The Testaments—one of Margaret Atwood’s most unforgettable characters lurks at the center of this intricate novel like a spider in a web. The glamorous, irresistible, unscrupulous Zenia is nothing less than a fairy-tale villain in the memories of her former friends.
Roz, Charis, and Tony—university classmates decades ago—were reunited at Zenia’s funeral and have met monthly for lunch ever since, obsessively retracing the destructive swath she once cut through their lives. A brilliantly inventive fabulist, Zenia had a talent for exploiting her friends’ weaknesses, wielding intimacy as a weapon and cheating them of money, time, sympathy, and men.
But one day, five years after her funeral, they are shocked to catch sight of Zenia: even her death appears to have been yet another fiction. As the three women plot to confront their larger-than-life nemesis, Atwood proves herself a gleefully acute observer of the treacherous shoals of friendship, trust, desire, and power.
Praise
"Funny, thoughtful, moving. . . . Atwood's plotting is masterful, and her humor is razor-edged, sexy, and raucous." —The Washington Post
“Vividly written, acutely observed and . . . very possibly the most intelligently tongue-in-cheek novel of the year.” —Salman Rushdie,The Independent
“Moving amid these three women, touching up their portraits with one perfect detail after another, conjuring Zenia from their memories and tears, Atwood is in her glory. What a treasure she is.” —Newsweek
"Margaret Atwood continues her long-running roll, offering us the good fortune of yet another disturbing and brilliantly conceived work of fiction." —Chicago Tribune
