Dancing Girls

This splendid volume of short fiction testifies to Margaret Atwood's bracing honesty and startlingly original voice. In her hands, ordinary people--farmers, birdwatchers, adolescent lovers, elderly neighbors, pregnant women--are anything but ordinary. A poet waylaid by an epic nosebleed; an awkward student trailed by an obtuse stalker; a jaded travel writer stranded on a life raft, finally facing a situation she can't trivialize: these characters touch us deeply, evoking laughter, terror, and compassion. Punctuated by brilliant flashes of fantasy, humor, and occasional violence, Dancing Girls pays tribute to the sheer variety and complexity of human relationships.