Hag-Seed
William Shakespeare’s The
Tempest Retold
Margaret Atwood
Hogarth, RRP
$37.00
Shakespeare’s play of magic
and illusion reimagined by one of
the world’s great literary
innovators.
Felix is at the top of his game as Artistic
Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. His
productions have amazed and confounded. Now
he’s staging a Tempest like no other: not
only will it boost his reputation, it will
heal emotional wounds.
Or that was the plan. Instead, after an act
of unforeseen treachery, Felix is living in exile in
a backwoods hovel, haunted by memories of his
beloved lost daughter, Miranda. And also
brewing revenge.
After twelve years, revenge finally arrives
in the shape of a theatre course at a nearby
prison. Here, Felix and his inmate actors
will put on his Tempest and snare the traitors who
destroyed him. It’s magic! But will it remake
Felix as his enemies fall?
second chances leads us on an interactive,
illusion-ridden journey filled with new surprises
and wonders of its own.
About the author:
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of
fiction, poetry and critical essays, including The Handmaid’s Tale,
the Booker-winning The Blind Assassin, the
MaddAddam trilogy, and her latest novel, The
Heart Goes Last. Her work has received many awards around the world. She has also
worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist,
playwright and puppeteer. Her first
encounters with Shakespeare took place in the 1950s at her Toronto high school, and she has
consistently named him as one of the most important influences on her own work. ‘The
Tempest is, in some ways, an early multimedia musical,’ she says. ‘If Shakespeare were
working today he’d be using every special effect technology now makes available. But The
Tempest is especially intriguing because of the many questions it leaves unanswered.
What a strenuous pleasure it has been to wrestle with it!’
HOGARTH SHAKESPEARE
The world’s favourite playwright
Today’s best-loved novelists
Timeless
stories retold
The Hogarth Shakespeare series is a major
international publishing initiative across the
Penguin Random House Group. William
Shakespeare was the great ‘reteller’ and the
series aims to continue this tradition and
celebrate his legacy, introducing his plays to a
new generation of fans.
The series launched with Jeanette Winterson’s
The Gap of Time. A further three novels
will be published during the 400th
anniversary year of Shakespeare’s death in 2016:
Howard Jacobson’s Shylock Is My Name (The
Merchant of Venice) in February, Anne
Tyler’s Vinegar Girl (The Taming of
the Shrew) in June and Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed
(The Tempest) in October.
The first four in the series will be joined
by Tracy Chevalier’s Othello, Gillian Flynn’s
Hamlet, Jo Nesbo’s Macbeth and Edward St
Aubyn’s King Lear. The books will be true to
the spirit of the original plays, while
giving authors an exciting opportunity to do something
new.
The novels will be published simultaneously
across the English-speaking world in print,
digital and audio formats, which will make
the books available to an even broader
audience. Rights to the novels have already
been sold in nineteen countries – the latest
being Romania, Greece and Estonia – and the
series will be published in twenty-two
languages across twenty-eight territories.
Hogarth Shakespeare is also a member of
Shakespeare400 – a consortium of leading
cultural, creative and educational
organisations, coordinated by King’s College London,
which will mark the 400th anniversary of
Shakespeare’s death in 2016. Through a
connected series of public performances,
programmes, exhibitions and creative activities
in the capital and beyond, partners will
celebrate the legacy of Shakespeare during the
quarter centenary year.
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