If you know the play well, these echoes grow stronger when Felix decides to exact his revenge by conjuring up a new version of The Tempest designed to overwhelm his enemies.” - Washington Post “Atwood has designed an ingenious doubling of the plot of The Tempest: Felix, the usurped director, finds himself cast by circumstances as a real-life version of Prospero, the usurped Duke. Part Shakespeare, part Atwood, Hag-Seed is a most delicate monster-and that’s ‘delicate’ in the 17th-century sense. “What makes the book thrilling, and hugely pleasurable, is how closely Atwood hews to Shakespeare even as she casts her own potent charms, rap-composition included. Margaret Atwood’s novel take on Shakespeare’s play of enchantment, retribution, and second chances leads us on an interactive, illusion-ridden journey filled with new surprises and wonders of its own. And also brewing revenge, which, after twelve years, arrives in the shape of a theatre course at a nearby prison. Instead, after an act of unforeseen treachery, Felix is living in exile in a backwoods hovel, haunted by memories of his beloved lost daughter, Miranda. Now he’s staging a Tempest like no other: not only will it boost his reputation, but it will also heal emotional wounds.

“A marvel of gorgeous yet economical prose, in the service of a story that’s utterly heartbreaking yet pierced by humor, with a plot that retains considerable subtlety even as the original’s back story falls neatly into place.”- The New York Times Book Reviewįelix is at the top of his game as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. The beloved author of The Handmaid’s Tale reimagines Shakespeare’s final, great play, The Tempest, in a gripping and emotionally rich novel of passion and revenge.

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood