The Robber Bride

By Margaret Atwood,

Book cover of The Robber Bride

Book description

Zenia is beautiful, smart and greedy, by turns manipulative and vulnerable, needy and ruthless; a man's dream and a woman"s nightmare. She is also dead. Just to make sure Tony, Roz andd Charis are there for the funeral. But five years on, as the three women share an indulgent, sisterly…

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Why read it?

6 authors picked The Robber Bride as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is a fascinating novel with a light ironic touch, although it deals with serious, sometimes traumatic experiences. Once you start reading, you cannot put the book down. How does the author do it? We can think of The Robber Bride as a mock mystery.

There is no lack of criminal actions. A mysterious beautiful woman with an uncertain and dubious past intervenes in the lives of three Toronto women, taking away from them what they cherish most: their lovers and husbands, not to mention financial assets. That the bad woman finds a violent death at the end appears to…

Exceptional writing - almost poetic. Very evocative of different times and places. A very rich story.

I both love and hate Zenia as a heroine in this witty, page-turning literary fiction by Atwood. Zenia is one of the cleverest and the most malicious female protagonists I’ve ever known: she constantly deceives her friends with her kaleidoscopic lies; she screws money out of them, and she even steals their men.

Would I want to be friends with her in real life? Probably not. But as a literary character, she stuns and captivates me and allows me to ponder the female transgression that lurks in all of us.

From Mirinae's list on villainous heroines.

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Book cover of The Map Colorist

The Map Colorist by Rebecca D'Harlingue,

In 1660, Amsterdam is the map-printing capital of the world. Anneke van Brug is a colorist, paid to enhance the black-and-white maps for the growing number of collectors. Her talent brings her to the attention of the great Joan Blaeu, owner of a prestigious publishing house. Not content to simply…

Another book with a delicious cover. I have long since lent my copy out and it never made its way back to me, but I remember the distinctive image of a woman in a black mask. Fairy tales offer dark female characters with a complexity that lends itself to further exploration. Zenia is the Robber Bride of the title and you don’t have to know the fairy tale to guess the story. Three friends share their accounts of how Zenia betrayed them in different ways. The reader forms a vivid picture of Zenia, but also the individual narrators. And there…

From Zosia's list on wonderful women behaving badly.

I love anything by Atwood, but this book had me hooked from the first sentence. Three women become friends, united against a common enemy–the unpredictable and glamorous Zenia, who attempted to steal away their boyfriends/husbands many years before. They believe her dead, but when she re-appears, old threats surface. The unravelling of the different tales past and present, and the way the women unite and fight back to save their relationships is a complex and page-turning story.

Who’s the Queen of Canadian Mystery? Many say Louise Penny, author of the Inspector Gamache series. I say Margaret Atwood. “Bull,” you say, “Atwood isn’t a mystery writer.” True, in as much as she’s not labeled a mystery writer. The Robber Bride is usually regarded as literary fiction but that doesn’t mean it’s not a mystery, and a damn fine one. Although the novel doesn’t feature a parade of murderees, there are enough plot twists to please the most demanding mystery fan. The reader knows the villain (Zenia) from the start. But they don’t know what she did, or how…

From A.M.'s list on Canadian detective and mysteries.

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Book cover of The Map Colorist

The Map Colorist by Rebecca D'Harlingue,

In 1660, Amsterdam is the map-printing capital of the world. Anneke van Brug is a colorist, paid to enhance the black-and-white maps for the growing number of collectors. Her talent brings her to the attention of the great Joan Blaeu, owner of a prestigious publishing house. Not content to simply…

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