The series that began in October with Karen Armstrong’s compelling A Short History of Myth continues, with electrifying new works of fiction from two of the world’s most loved writers.

Booker Award-winner Margaret Atwood, who has reworked the traditional telling of the Odyssey narrative, says: I’ve chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and to the twelve hanged maids. The maids form a chanting and singing chorus which focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of The Odyssey: what led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?

The story as told in The Odyssey doesn’t hold water; there are too many inconsistencies. I’ve always been haunted by the hanged maids; and in The Penelopiad, so is Penelope herself.