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the BOOK AND AUTHOR
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The Myths Series |
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 The
Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus
by Margaret Atwood
ABOUT THE BOOK
Fiction
- Mythology; Fiction • Knopf Canada •
Hardcover, 216 pages • October 2005 •
$25.00 • 0-676-97418-X The
story of Penelope — as told by herself.
In The Odyssey,
Penelope — daughter of King Icarius of
Sparta, and the cousin of the beautiful Helen
of Troy — is portrayed as the quintessential
faithful wife. Atwood’s dazzling retelling
of the old myth is as haunting as it is wise
and compassionate, as disturbing as it is entertaining.
With incomparable wit and verve, she gives the
story of Penelope new life and reality.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
photo
credit: Jess Atwood Gibson
Nominated for the first
ever Man Booker International Prize representing
the best writers in contemporary fiction, Margaret
Atwood is the author of more than 35 internationally
acclaimed works of fiction, poetry and critical
essays. Her numerous awards include the Governor
General’s Award for The Handmaid’s
Tale, and The Giller Prize and Italian
Premio Mondello for Alias Grace.
The Handmaid’s Tale, Cat’s
Eye, Alias Grace, and
Oryx and Crake were all shortlisted
for the Man Booker Prize, which she won with The
Blind Assassin. She is a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Canada, and has been awarded
the Norwegian Order of Literary Merit and the
French Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et
des Lettres; she is a Foreign Honorary Member
for Literature of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences. She lives in Toronto. |
 A
Short History of Myth
by Karen Armstrong
ABOUT THE BOOK
Literary
Criticism & Collections - Reference; Social
Science - Folklore & Mythology • Knopf
Canada • Hardcover, 168 pages • October
2005 • $25.00 • 0-676-97419-8
Human beings have always been
myth makers. . .
So begins Karen Armstrong’s
concise yet compelling investigation into myth:
how it has evolved and why it is so essential
to our ability to live well. She takes us from
the Paleolithic period and the earliest mythologies
of the hunters up to the “Great Western
Transformation” of the last 500 years,
including the recent discrediting of myth by
science. The history of myth is the history
of humanity. Our stories and beliefs, our curiosity,
and attempts to understand the world link us
not only to our ancestors but to each other.
Today, more than ever, myths help us make sense
of the universe and of ourselves, our longings
and our weaknesses.
Heralding a major series of
retellings of the ancient myths by authors from
around the world, Armstrong’s characteristically
insightful book is an eloquent introduction
to any understanding of myth — and why,
if we dismiss it in the modern age, we do so
at our peril.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
photo
credit: Jerry Bauer
Since leaving her religious
order in 1969, Karen Armstrong has become one
of the world’s foremost commentators on
religion. Her bestselling books include her acclaimed
memoirs Through the Narrow Gate,
which describes her seven years as a young nun
in a Catholic order, and The Spiral Staircase,
as well as the internationally renowned A
History of God, Islam: A Short
History, The Battle for God,
Holy War and Buddha.
Karen Armstrong lives in London. |
 Weight:
Atlas and Heracles
by Jeanette Winterson
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Fiction - Mythology; Fiction
• Knopf Canada • Hardcover, 168 pages
• October 2005 • $25.00 • 0-676-97417-1
The story of Atlas
and Heracles
Atlas knows how it feels to
carry the weight of the world; but why, he asks
himself, does it have to be carried at all?
In Weight — visionary
and inventive, yet completely believable and
relevant to the questions we ask ourselves every
day — Winterson’s skill in turning
the familiar on its head to show us a different
truth is put to stunning effect.
When I was asked to choose
a myth to write about, I realized I had chosen
already. The story of Atlas holding up the world
was in my mind before the telephone call had
ended. If the call had not come, perhaps I would
never have written the story, but when the call
did come, that story was waiting to be written.
Rewritten. The recurring language motif of Weight
is “I want to tell the story again.”
My work is full
of Cover Versions. I like to take stories we
think we know and record them differently. In
the retelling comes a new emphasis or bias,
and the new arrangement of the key elements
demands that fresh material be injected into
the existing text.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
photo credit: Peter Peitsch/peitschphotos.com
A novelist whose honours
include England’s Whitbread Prize, and the
American Academy’s E. M. Forster Award,
as well as the Prix d’argent at the Cannes
Film Festival, Jeanette Winterson burst onto the
literary scene as a very young woman in 1985 with
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.
Her subsequent novels, including Sexing
the Cherry, The Passion,
Written on the Body, and The
PowerBook, have also gone on to receive
great international acclaim. Her latest novel
is Lighthousekeeping, heralded
as "a brilliant, glittering, piece of work"
(The Independent). She lives in London
and the Cotswolds. |
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