By turns humorous, warm, stark, and frightening, these stories glow with childhood memories, the reality of parents growing old, and the casual cruelty men and women inflict on one another. Here is the familiar outer world of family summers at remote lakes, winters of political activism, and seasons of exotic friends, mundane lives, and unexpected loves. But here, too, is the inner world of hidden places and all that emerges from them.
By turns humorous and warm, stark and poignant, these stories from the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments probe childhood memories, the reality of parents growing old, and the casual cruelty men and women can inflict on one another.

A tenuous teenage love affair fails to survive a hurricane; a man notices the women around him becoming progressively paler and smaller; a surgeon who specializes in hearts seems oddly emotionally opaque to his wife; a middle-aged couple's waning affection rekindles at the spectacle of rare Jamaican birds. In these exceptional short stories, Margaret Atwood proves herself once again a true master of the form.