From Our Editors
When Grace Marks comes to work at Thomas Kinnear's home just
outside of Toronto, she's glad to have a job. Not to mention that
the housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery, is around her age and Grace has
missed out on having a close girlfriend for years. But the move to
Richmond Hill is one that will change her entire life. After her
employer and Nancy are brutally murdered, Grace is convicted of
their murder even though she can't remember anything about the
event. In Alias Grace a doctor tries to
draw the truth out of the hapless woman 15 years after the murder.
This is Margaret Atwood's first foray into
historical fiction and is arguably one of her best books.
From the Publisher
In this astonishing new work by the author of the bestselling
The Robber Bride and Cat''s Eye, Margaret Atwood
re-creates a mysterious and disturbing murder and breathes new life
into one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of the
nineteenth century.
Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious
murders of her employer, the wealthy Thomas Kinnear, and his
housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery. Years later, Dr. Simon Jordan--an
up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental
illness--listens to Grace''s story, from her family''s difficult
passage from Ireland to Canada, to her time as a maid in Thomas
Kinnear''s household. As Grace relives her past, Jordan draws her
closer to a dark maze of relationships and her lost memories of the
day her life was shattered.
Superbly evoking a century past, and alive with mesmerizing
storytelling, Alias Grace is vintage Atwood.
About the Author
Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa in 1939, and
grew up in northern Quebec and Ontario, and later in Toronto. She
has lived in numerous cities in Canada, the U.S., and Europe.
She is the author of more than forty books - novels, short stories,
poetry, literary criticism, social history, and books for children.
Atwood's work is acclaimed internationally and has been published
around the world. Her novels include The Handmaid's Tale
and Cat's Eye - both shortlisted for the Booker Prize;
The Robber Bride, winner of the Trillium Book Award and a
finalist for the Governor General's Award; Alias Grace,
winner of the prestigious Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio
Mondello in Italy, and a finalist for the Governor General's Award,
the Booker Prize, the Orange Prize, and the International IMPAC
Dublin Literary Award; The Blind Assassin, winner of the
Booker Prize and a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin
Literary Award; and Oryx and Crake, a finalist for The
Giller Prize, the Governor General's Award, the Orange Prize, and
the Man Booker Prize. Her most recent books of fiction are The
Penelopiad, The Tent, and Moral Disorder.
She is the recipient of numerous honours, such as The Sunday
Times Award for Literary Excellence in the U.K., the National
Arts Club Medal of Honor for Literature in the U.S., Le Chevalier
dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, and she was the
first winner of the London Literary Prize. She has received
honorary degrees from universities across Canada, and one from
Oxford University in England.
Margaret Atwood lives in Toronto with novelist Graeme Gibson.
From the Hardcover edition.
Mass Market Paperbound
576 Pages, 4.2 x 7.5 x 1.75 in
September 2, 1997
Doubleday Canada
0770427596
9780770427597