Old Babes in the Wood gathers fifteen inventive short stories from Margaret Atwood, the acclaimed author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments. Written with her signature blend of sharp wit, emotional intelligence, and speculative imagination, these pieces explore how people love, remember, age, and reinvent themselves.
Several stories follow a married couple over many decades, tracing the quiet moments, shared jokes, and private griefs that shape a long life together and what lingers afterward. Others stand alone, playing with genre and tone: two sisters wrestle with loss and memory during a luminous summer evening, an offbeat retelling of a folkloric tale probes alienation and miscommunication, and a daughter reflects on a mother who might actually be a witch.
Moving between the familiar and the uncanny, Atwood examines relationships, family, and mortality with compassion and a dry, often dark humour. Readers of contemporary and literary fiction will find a rich variety of voices and scenarios, from grounded realism to the lightly fantastical.
Old Babes in the Wood is ideal for readers who enjoy character-driven stories, subtle speculation, and thoughtful explorations of how ordinary lives intersect with extraordinary moments.
