I have read one Margaret Atwood novel before (Cat's Eye), and remember being very impressed by her writing. I was thus pleased to find her short reworking of Odysseus' tale (as commonly told in the Iliad and the Odyssey), both because she wrote it and because I always enjoy old stories told from new perspectives.

In The Penelopiad we are told the story of Odysseus' wife Penelope, as she waits (for twenty years) for him to return from the Trojan war. Her thoughts and reflections are interspersed with those of her maids, who echo the role of the chorus in Greek drama.

This was a quick read, but very insightful and excellently written. It is wonderful to come across a simple thing done very, very well, especially by someone who is clearly intelligent and well-informed.