Stone Mattress

A man bids on an auctioned storage space and has quite a surprise. A woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire. An elderly lady with Charles Bonnet's syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly-formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. A crime committed long-ago is revenged in the Arctic via a 1.9 billion year old stromatalite. And an erstwhile femme fatale is reincarnated - possibly - as a frisky but effective dog. In these nine tales, Margaret Atwood ventures into territory earlier explored by fabulists and concoctors of dark yarns such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Daphne du Maurier, and Arthur Conan Doyle - and also by herself, in her award-winning novel Alias Grace. Margaret Atwood is at the top of her darkly humorous and seriously playful game.