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This is the wise, unsettling, drastic story of three women whose lives share a common wound: Zenia, a woman they first met as university students in the sixties. Zenia is smart and beautiful, by turns manipulative, vulnerable – and irresistible. She has entered into their separate lives to ensnare their sympathy, betray their trust, and exploit their weaknesses. Now Zenia, thought dead, has suddenly reappeared. In this richly layered narrative, Atwood skilfully evokes the decades of the past as she retraces three women’s lives, until we are back in the present – where it’s yet to be discovered whether Zenia’s “pure, free-wheeling malevolence” can still wreak havoc. The Robber Bride reports from the farthest reaches of the sex wars and is one of Margaret Atwood’s most intricate and subversive novels yet.
1. In The Robber Bride, Tony says that people like Zenia don't get into your life unless you invite them in. What devices does Zenia use to first gain entry into the lives of Tony, Charis, and Roz? How does she alter her techniques to attract and control men?
2. On the surface, Tony, Charis, and Roz do not appear to be at all alike, yet similarities do in fact exist. For example, during their childhoods they each developed what could be called "dual" identities. How do the psychological devices they developed as children help or hinder them? In what ways do their own children differ from them?
3. While seeming all-powerful, the constantly changing Zenia lacks a centre of her own. Is it possible for women to achieve the same kinds of power that men do in today's society, or do they have to break rules and operate as outlaws? Do women have a kind of power that is different from male power?
4. Magic can mean two things: sleight of hand played by stage magicians, and true "magic," or supernatural ability. What role does each kind of "magic" play in the novel, if any?
5. The restaurant where Zenia reappears is called The Toxique. What role does naming - of persons and places - play in this novel?
6. Is there a difference between the lies others tell and Zenia's lies? Are there "good" lies and "bad" lies? Do the hearers play a role in the construction of these lies?
Discussion questions provided courtesy of Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. All rights reserved.
About this Author
MARGARET ATWOOD is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. In addition to The Handmaid's Tale, now an award-winning TV series, her novels include The Testaments, which was the winner of the 2019 Booker Prize; Cat's Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; The MaddAddam Trilogy; The Heart Goes Last; and Hag-Seed. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Los Angeles Times Innovator's Award. In 2019, she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature. She lives in Toronto.
Reviews
WINNER OF THE TRILLIUM BOOK AWARD
WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES AWARD FOR LITERARY EXCELLENCE
WINNER OF THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS' PRIZE (Canadian and Caribbean Region)
WINNER OF THE CANADIAN AUTHORS' ASSOCIATION NOVEL OF THE YEAR
FINALIST FOR THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION
LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD
"Excitements, wit, and insight sizzle across the pages. Atwood's survey of impulses that bedevil life seethes with imagination, inventiveness, and intelligence. Even she has never written better than in this novel of glittering breadth and dark, eerie depths." --Sunday Times
"A remarkable achievement, constantly entertaining and intriguing." --Ottawa Citizen
"Funny, thoughtful, moving. . . . Atwood's plotting is masterful, and her humor is razor-edged, sexy, and raucous." --Washington Post
"Vividly written, acutely observed and . . . very possibly the most intelligently tongue-in-cheek novel of the year." --Salman Rushdie, The Independent
"Nobody maps female psychic territory the way Margaret Atwood does. . . . What a treasure she is." --Newsweek
"A terrific story. . . . Atwood's funniest book in years." --New York Times Book Review
"A hugely enjoyable novel." --Globe and Mail
"Deserves every superlative we can muster from hilarious to wise. . . . A genuine tour de force, witty and original, suspenseful and sagacious." --Booklist
"Irresistable. . . . It may be Atwood's most important book. . . . Postfeminism comes of age with humor and dignity in The Robber Bride." --Vogue
"Nobody maps female psychic territory the way Margaret Atwood does. . . . What a treasure she is." --Newsweek
"Margaret Atwood continues her long-running roll, offering us the good fortune of yet another disturbing and brilliantly conceived work of fiction." --Chicago Tribune
"Imaginative and suspenseful. . . . A virtuoso performance." --Publishers Weekly
"Grabs the funny bone, the brain, and sometimes the throat." --Kingston Whig-Standard
"Wickedly funny . . . witty . . . well-observed." --Observer (UK)
"The virtuosity with which Margaret Atwood's prose moves between rage and wit, poignancy and suspense, fantasy and realism makes The Robber Bride a stimulating read." --Sunday Telegraph
"Startling, provacative, and rewarding." --Canadian Forum
"Compelling and astonishingly rich." --Books in Canada
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