collection of short stories, Old Babes in the Wood (Vintage Books, 2023). Atwood is among the
most notable authors of our time, having published over fifty books, including novels, poetry,
short stories, essays, and children’s stories. She is best known for her 1985 novel The
Handmaid’s Tale.
We’ll be reading and discussing the three “Tig and Nell” and the four “Nell and Tig” stories with
which Old Babes begins and ends. The stories are “scenes from a marriage,” about Nell and
Tig’s life together, from their younger years to their old age. They range from very clever humor
to deep poignancy.