Old Babes in the Wood

Atwood...writes infectiously... page after page proving that...[her] lavish literary talents remain wholly undiminished

Reader's Digest

A gripping read... Old Babes in the Wood is further evidence of a writer in full possession of her powers. Atwood will never struggle to find readers, but this collection really is worth their attention

Financial Times

Atwood... is a brilliant and spiky storyteller who can seamlessly turn big issues into page-turners... These are Atwood's most personal tales so far

Sunday Times

The inimitable author of The Handmaid's Tail is spectacular at short stories

i

This set of interweaving short stories is a perfect way to get a more bite-sized read... There's a story in here that everyone can relate to

Woman & Home

Nell and Tig are the ageing couple whose small dramas and deep feelings bookend this new story collection... brought achingly to life and sharpened by Atwood's dry wit and wily wisdom

Mail on Sunday

[Old Babes in the Wood] showcase[s] Atwood's spiky wit and imagination

Sunday Express

Devastating and thought-provoking in equal measure, you will find yourself thoroughly entertained - and we're sure you'll return to these again and again

Glamour

If you consider yourself and Atwood fan and have only read her novels: Get your act together. You've been missing out

New York Times Book Review

There are authors we turn to because they can uncannily predict our future; there are authors we need for their skillful diagnosis of our present; and there are authors we love because they can explain our past. And then there are the outliers: those who gift us with timelines other than the one we're stuck in, realities far from home. If anyone has proved, over the course of a long and wildly diverse career, that she can be all four, it's Margaret Atwood . . . Long may she reign

New York Times Book Review

As affecting as any of Atwood's strongest work

Wired

Vitality and virtuosity have been the hallmarks of Atwoods literary career - and, as Old Babes in the Wood, published in her 84th year, shows, triumphantly continue to be so... Mortality shadows the book. Vivacity makes it shine

Peter Kemp, Sunday Times

Atwood shows mastery of the short form . . . [The] stories unwrap what TS Eliot called the gifts reserved for age. There are chips and fragments of lives, full of sass and sadness

Sam Leith, Guardian

To be honest, we would read anything this woman writes, but Old Babes in the Wood is one of her best

Glamour

The Booker winner writes beautifully about ageing and death . . . the silence after the best stories here is akin to how she describes the aftermath of a calamitous event

John Self, The Times

In Old Babes in the Wood, Margaret Atwood delivers her signature sci-fi with a human heart. It is a story collection that teems with playfulness and invention... reminding us of her skill in the short form

Emily Watkins

A highly personal collection

Lisa O'Kelly, Observer

The Tig and Nell stories... are subtle and poignant, written in grief and from the heart

The Oldie

The 15 stories in this collection from the stellar Margaret Atwood are book-ended by the touching, tender, grief-tinged tales of Tig and Nell

Eithne Farry, Daily Mail

Old Babes in the Wood... [is] a clear demonstration of her prevailing skill as a writer

Arts Desk

As her short story collection Old Babes in the Wood debuts at the top of the fiction chart, Margaret Atwood can rest assured that she has reached literary legend status. It was one thing for The Handmaid's Tale to make it to No 1, but quite another for stories narrated by snails and aliens to do it

The Sunday Times

Her latest collection of short stories... proves once again she's also an impassioned observer of everyday people and their struggles, with a hilarious sense of humour

RTE *Book Of The Week*

Each [story] is interesting in its own right...Atwood's imagination and mastery of storytelling is evident

UK Press Syndication

[A] writer who is still so sparky and brilliant in the sudden ways she tips you into despair or delight. Whatever she's up to, I'll take more if it's going

Alys Key, Spectator

Quietly devastating

Suzi Feay, The Tablet

Any new publication by the estimable Atwood...is an event and this collection of 15 short stories is no exception

Evening Standard

Bracing, darkly funny and cheerfully unsentimental

Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2023*

Atwood’s lavish literary talents remain wholly undiminished

Reader's Digest, *Books of the Year*