Dancing Girls

By: Margaret Atwood

Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow

Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Students and journalists, farmers and birdwatchers, ex-wives, adolescent lovers and dancing girls. All are ordinary people. Or are they?

In this splendid collection of short stories, Margaret Atwood maps the human motivation we scarcely know we have in a startlingly original voice, full of a rare intensity and exceptional intelligence. With brilliant flashes of fantasy, humour and unexpected violence, these stories reveal the complexities of human relationships and bring to life characters that evoke laughter, compassion, terror and recognition.

©1977 O.W. Toad Ltd 1982 (P)2014 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd.

Perfect Match

Short stories are great on audio when you only have short periods to listen. I've been listening in 15 minute fragments when night feeding a new baby or in bed before I go to sleep at night. And as a general rule I prefer reading short story collections by one author.

Margaret Atwood is a consummate storyteller, and though her language is virtuosic in this early collection of stories (first published in 1977), it is never at the cost of story or character. There are repeated motifs and themes (the figure of The Poet looms large), which prove very satisfying if you are listening over an extended period of time. Her later works are foreshadowed here, and if you enjoy these stories I highly recommend continuing to read or listen to her novels.

These stories are not elaborate or complicated but showcase how elaborate and complex each human interior is. Definitely worth a listen.

Rich, satisfying and brilliant

Dancing Girls is a fabulous audiobook, the perfect combination of captivating stories, brilliant writing, and flawless reading. Margaret Atwood is a phenomenal writer, her work never fails to please, but there is something extra special about this collection of short stories that examine relationships between women and men - friendships, marriages, affairs. They are so rich that each is as satisfying as a novel, and deserve taking time to pause to reflect, or a second listen, before moving to the next one. The narrator, Laurel Lefkow, deserves a special mention too as her skilful and sensitive narration is the best of any that I have so far heard. She vividly brings the characters to life without obviously 'performing' and her narration perfectly matches the pace and tone of Atwood's writing. My only tiny niggle is with the production, because each story rapidly runs on to the next without pause. It would have been better if a short amount of silence had been added at the end of each story to herald the beginning of the next and allow time to hit pause. This is an audiobook that I will come back to again and again, and will no doubt find new treasures with each listen.

headlines of chapters

I hope audible will add the headlines of chapters. if we could see the names of the parts;
it would be easier to choose the true part when we want to listen it again.