The Penelopiad

* Half-Dorothy Parker, half-Desperate Housewives. Independent * As potent as a curse. -- Lucy Hughes Hallett Sunday Times * Pragmatic, clever, domestic, mournful, Penelope is a perfect Atwood heroine. -- Sam Leith Spectator * Atwood takes Penelope's part with tremendous verve...she explores the very nature of mythic story-telling. -- Mary Beard Guardian * Atwood's typical wit and vim on fine display: with the late maids providing a Greek chorus, Penelope swoops across the centuries to pithily slate her cousin Helen of Troy, judge Odysseus and even provide a feminist viewpoint of which Homer could nary have dreamt. Observer