Lady Oracle

By the author of The Handmaid''s Tale, The Testaments and Alias Grace

The trick was to disappear without a trace, leaving behind me the shadow of a corpse, a shadow everyone would mistake for solid reality. At first I thought I''d managed it.

Fat girl, thin girl. Red hair, brown hair. Polish aristocrat, radical husband. Joan Foster has dozens of different identities, and she''s utterly confused by them all. After a life spent running away from difficult situations, she decides to escape to a hill town in Italy to take stock of her life.

But first she must carefully arrange her own death.

''A very funny novel, lightly told with wry detachment and considerable art'' Washington Post

''A mistress of controlled hysteria'' Time

''If you feel safe only with "nine to five" reality, you''ll probably not enjoy Atwood''s books. But if you''d like to lift off, try her'' Cosmopolitan