Hag-Seed

Book cover of Hag-Seed

Book description

** Longlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction **

Selected as a Book of the Year -- Observer, Sunday Times, Times, Guardian, i magazine

`It's got a thunderstorm in it. And revenge. Definitely revenge.'

Felix is at the top of his game as Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Hag-Seed as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Maren Showkeir

Author

I fell in love with Shakespeare as a college undergrad and was introduced to the incomparable artistry of Margaret Atwood at around the same time. Her novel Hag-Seed (the title is a Shakespearean "curse word") slipped past me somehow. Happily, I rectified that oversight this year.

This book is remarkable for its clever plot, colorful characters, and it's satisfying resolution. Set mainly in a prison, it's based on one of Shakespeare's lesser-staged plays, The Tempest. The book's sly humor made me laugh out loud for real, which is no mean literary feat.

Her book also underscores what an essential…

From Maren's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Jinny Webber

Author

The chronology of my Shakespeare-era novels hasn’t reached The Tempest, but I love how this novel features a production of the play—in a prison. The relation of the inmates to their roles and the protagonist’s personal crisis give Prospero and his island new life in a setting also set apart from society. I enjoyed how the characters come to realizations about Shakespeare’s play as they rehearse, the goal of my own novels from a different angle. Many spinoffs from Shakespeare use his plot devices, but Atwood relies on The Tempest for her plot. Each ‘best’ novel here reveals new…

From Jinny's list on relating to Shakespeare.

Victoria Unveiled

By Shane Joseph,

Book cover of Victoria Unveiled

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What is my book about?

A fast-paced literary thriller with a strong sci-fi element and loaded with existential questions. Beyond the entertainment value, this book takes a hard look at the perilous world of publishing, which is on a crash course to meet the nascent, no-holds-barred world of AI. Could these worlds co-exist, or will they destroy each other? And more importantly, how will humans tolerate their own creations, the robots, on this planet?

In this, his latest speculative fiction novel, Shane Joseph, returns to the “what if” questions facing humanity that he raised in After the Flood, a book that won him the…

Victoria Unveiled

By Shane Joseph,

What is this book about?

With Chatbots and Large Language Models changing the world of writing and publishing dramatically, what happens when we introduce a sentient robot capable of feelings into the mix?

Phil Kruger, inventor, and serial womanizer, believes he has the answer in his creation, Victoria, the first sentient robot in the world, imbued with beauty, knowledge, and strength and on a crash course to acquire human feelings through massive infusions of data. Arrayed against him are independent trade publisher Artemius (Art) Jones and his rebellious and sexually starved daughter, Paula, an editor herself, who is determined to take her father's failing press,…

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