From Our Editors
The bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale takes readers back 150 years and inside the life and mind of one of the most notorious women of the 1840s--Grace Marks, serving a life sentence for the vicious murders of a wealthy landowner and his mistress. Into this rich work of the imagination, Atwood brings her brilliant insights into the relationships between men and women and between the society of the entitled and those without position.
From the Publisher
In this astonishing tour de force, Margaret Atwood takes the reader
back in time and into the life and mind of one of the most
enigmatic and notorious women of the nineteenth century. In 1843,
at the age of sixteen, servant girl Grace Marks was convicted for
her part in the vicious murders of her employer and his mistress.
Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane.
Grace herself claims to have no memory of the murders. As Dr. Simon
Jordan - an expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness -
tries to unlock her memory, what will he find? Was Grace a femme
fatale - or a weak and unwilling victim of circumstances? Taut and
compelling, penetrating and wise, Alias Grace is a
beautifully crafted work of the imagination that vividly evokes
time and place. The novel and its characters will continue to haunt
the reader long after the final page.
From the Jacket
In this astonishing tour de force, Margaret Atwood takes the reader back in time and into the life and mind of one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of the nineteenth century. In 1843, at the age of sixteen, servant girl Grace Marks was convicted for her part in the vicious murders of her employer and his mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Grace herself claims to have no memory of the murders. As Dr. Simon Jordan - an expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness - tries to unlock her memory, what will he find? Was Grace a femme fatale - or a weak and unwilling victim of circumstances? Taut and compelling, penetrating and wise, "Alias Grace is a beautifully crafted work of the imagination that vividly evokes time and place. The novel and its characters will continue to haunt the reader long after the final page.
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.
Hardcover
0 x 0 x 0 in
August 1, 1996
McClelland & Stewart
077100835X
9780771008351