Old Babes in the Wood

Stories

By: Margaret Atwood

Narrated by: Margaret Atwood, Linda Lavin, Dan Stevens, Kimberly Farr, Rebecca Lowman, Bahni Turpin, Dawn Harvey, Allan Corduner

Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, a dazzling collection of short stories that look deeply into the heart of family relationships, marriage, loss and memory, and what it means to spend a life together

"If you consider yourself an Atwood fan and have only read her novels: Get your act together. You’ve been missing out.” —The New York Times Book Review, Rebecca Makkai, best-selling author of The Great Believers

Margaret Atwood has established herself as one of the most visionary and canonical authors in the world. This collection of fifteen extraordinary stories—some of which have appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine—explore the full warp and weft of experience, speaking to our unique times with Atwood’s characteristic insight, wit and intellect.

The two intrepid sisters of the title story grapple with loss and memory on a perfect summer evening; “Impatient Griselda” explores alienation and miscommunication with a fresh twist on a folkloric classic; and “My Evil Mother” touches on the fantastical, examining a mother-daughter relationship in which the mother purports to be a witch. At the heart of the collection are seven extraordinary stories that follow a married couple across the decades, the moments big and small that make up a long life of uncommon love—and what comes after.

Returning to short fiction for the first time since her 2014 collection Stone Mattress, Atwood showcases both her creativity and her humanity in these remarkable tales which by turns delight, illuminate, and quietly devastate.

©2023 Margaret Atwood (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“There are authors we turn to because they can uncannily predict our future; there are authors we need for their skillful diagnosis of our present; and there are authors we love because they can explain our past. And then there are the outliers: those who gift us with timelines other than the one we’re stuck in, realities far from home. If anyone has proved, over the course of a long and wildly diverse career, that she can be all four, it’s Margaret Atwood. Long may she reign...If you consider yourself an Atwood fan and have only read her novels: Get your act together. You’ve been missing out.”—Rebecca Makkai, New York Times Book Review

“Old Babes in the Wood is touching, smart, funny, and unique in equal measure…A dazzling mixture of stories that explore what it means to be human while also showcasing Atwood's gifted imagination and great sense of humor.” —NPR

“These fifteen stories are a master class in how to write, a rollicking good time, and a deep exploration of human relationships—the damage we do to each other and the ways we come together. Delving into Atwood’s work feels a bit like coming home—you can trust her to tell a good story and not make any gaffes along the way.” —Brooklyn Rail

Mesmerizing

I loved it, but I'm biased. Atwood's words help me navigate age , while finding the beauty of nature.

The best

Brilliant! I’ve digested this more than once.. I always learn and wonder reading Ms Atwood’s work..

Too much Atwood reading

Great writer. Horrendously, tragically bad reader. A perfect sleep aid. Better than any drug. If you’re interested in Atwood please just read it. Listening to it - almost no matter whose reading- for multiple stories in a row hurts. One a week ok. Not in a row.

A Couple of Good Stories, But Not Great

Margaret Atwood is a great writer. No question. She is unmatched in certain areas. But this book only has a couple of really good stories. The rest of it seems indulgent and uses a lot of the same rhetorical tricks. Positively boring at times. But still, Atwood is a legend.

Boring

Yes Margaret Atwood is a good writing, yes she knows how to turn a phrase but the characters in her short stories really are not interesting at all. I would never have finished this book if it wasn’t the choice for the bookclub I am in. I feel bad for the person who picked this book as several of us are already complaining how boring it is and the book club hasn’t even met yet. I feel as if this book would never have been published if it was written by M. A

Loved it but it’s tough going at times

A wonderfully lucid and artful look at aging and death. At times very funny, like moments in the interview with dead George Orwell or the view of humanity from the vantage point of a snail’s soul that landed in a human woman after the snail’s death. At other times, Margaret Atwood gives us the raw pain of war in an extended piece about WWII and the almost unbearable pain of the loss of a cherished partner. Her language and her powers of observation are so deeply felt and deeply drawn. I’m sorry for those who read this book and found it boring. Maybe it was too painful or perhaps they were young and in that case, I can understand that much of it was hard to fathom. I’d say wait a few decades or more and then come back to it, you might be surprised!

Play the first stories at 2.5x speed, so you don’t lose patience before the really good ones at the end

I love Margaret Atwood at her best—which applies to a few of these, the personal ones, which are truly affecting, hovering at the edge of the unspoken.
Performance: Much as I appreciate hearing an author’s voice, this would be better used more sparingly, say, just for the acknowledgements. It really makes one realize just how much a professional reader brings to an audiobook. 

Awful

Its not that I wasn't warned. I had read other reviews. But I was in a pickle. I needed to read this book for Book Club, and Im having trouble with my eyes. So I bit the bullet and spent a credit on this title. Honestly; I'd like to know. What are authors thinking when they decide to read their own works? It's never a good idea, and this is especially awful. I set the speed to X1.5 just to get through these tiresome stories. Save your credit. I normally love Kate Atwood, but this one, not so much.

Disappointing

The writing is dreary and predictable, and the narration is dull, plodding, monotone and muddy.