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Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays including The Handmaid's Tale, the Booker-winning The Blind Assassin, the MaddAddam trilogy and her latest novel, The Heart Goes Last. Her work has received many awards around the world. She has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright and puppeteer. Her first encounters with Shakespeare took place in the 1950s at her Toronto high school, and she has consistently named him as one of the most important influences on her own work. 'The Tempest is, in some ways, an early multi-media musical. If Shakespeare were working today he'd be using every special effect technology now makes available. But The Tempest is especially intriguing because of the many questions it leaves unanswered. What a strenuous pleasure it has been to wrestle with it!'
Riotous, insanely readable and just the best fun... The novel builds to a fantastic climax of dark calamity... There is so much exuberance and heart and wonder in this novel that the only thing I want to happen next is for Atwood to rewrite the whole of Shakespeare. (No offence, Will.) -- Viv Groskop * Observer * A triumph... The book illuminates the breadth and depth of the whole play. The troupe's workshops on it fizz with perception as Atwood transmits the pleasurable buzz of exploring a literary masterpiece. There won't be a more glowing tribute to Shakespeare in his 400th anniversary year -- Peter Kemp * Sunday Times * Atwood reinterprets the play as a heartbreaking novel, told in gorgeous yet economical prose -- Editor's Choice * New York Times Book Review * Surpassingly brilliant... without question the cleverest ""neo-Shakespearean novel"" I have ever read... the learning and the critical analysis are worn exceptionally lightly, always subordinated to wit, invention, characterisation and slick twists of plot... wonderfully ingenious -- Jonathan Bate * The Times * An absolute triumph... ravishing... I am not ashamed to say that I didn't just have a lump in my throat by the end of Hag-Seed, I had tears on the fringed curtains of mine eyes -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday *
