The Penelopiad — Margaret Atwood

Short, furious, and the maids finally speak.

The Odyssey has a body count nobody mourns. The hanging of the maids is a murder the hero's story files under housekeeping.

You want it sharp and short: the wife narrating from the underworld, and the maids who never got justice finally speaking.

What it keeps and what it changes

Keeps: the homecoming’s facts.
Changes: who narrates: Penelope from Hades, and the twelve hanged maids as a haunting Greek chorus.

Whose story is it?

Penelope’s and the maids’.

The feminism angle: Central and furious. Atwood indicts the poem's treatment of the enslaved women directly.

How much time does it ask?

≈3.5 hr read (a novella).

The maids’ recurring chorus, returning to the crime the epic would rather forget.

Where to find it

Buy the paperback — Bookshop.org →

Other ways to get it: Paperback — Amazon ↗ · Kindle — Amazon ↗

Borrow it free: Borrow on Libby ↗ · Find at your library — WorldCat ↗

Not sure this is yours? Take the quiz →

More ways home: The Emily Wilson Translation (2017) · The Robert Fagles Translation (1996) · The Robert Fitzgerald Translation (1961)

Compare on one axis: How much of the gods do you actually get? (pushed offstage)