Alongside meditations on warlords, cat heaven, and orphans, the bestselling author of
The Handmaid's Tale
and
The Testaments
offers a sly pep talk to the ambitious young, laments the proliferation of photos of oneself, imagines an apocalypse of worms, and recalls Helen of Troy’s childhood Kool-Aid stand.
In the title fable, a writer huddled inside a tent of paper engages in doodling as self-defense, scribbling on the walls in a frantic attempt to keep out encroaching horrors.
Adorned with her own playful illustrations,
The Tent
is a delightful mélange of short fiction that pushes the boundaries of form in intriguing directions, replete with Atwood’s droll humor, keen insight, and lyric brilliance.