The Robber Bride

By: Margaret Atwood

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Length: 20 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

From the best-selling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments - one of Margaret Atwood’s most unforgettable characters lurks at the center of this intricate novel like a spider in a web. The glamorous, irresistible, unscrupulous Zenia is nothing less than a fairy-tale villain in the memories of her former friends.

Roz, Charis, and Tony - university classmates decades ago - were reunited at Zenia’s funeral and have met monthly for lunch ever since, obsessively retracing the destructive swath she once cut through their lives. A brilliantly inventive fabulist, Zenia had a talent for exploiting her friends’ weaknesses, wielding intimacy as a weapon and cheating them of money, time, sympathy, and men.

But one day, five years after her funeral, they are shocked to catch sight of Zenia: Even her death appears to have been yet another fiction. As the three women plot to confront their larger-than-life nemesis, Atwood proves herself a gleefully acute observer of the treacherous shoals of friendship, trust, desire, and power.

©2011 Margaret Atwood (P)2011 Random House

Critic reviews

"Moving amid these three women, touching up their portraits with one perfect detail after another, conjuring Zenia from their memories and tears, Atwood is in her glory. What a treasure she is, and what a fine new book she has written" ( Newsweek)

BORED with her own novel?

It started off strong but ended with a well-written whimper. The prose was strong, the characters were interesting, but in the end it just seemed a little too predictable a tad too structured. By the concluding sentence, it almost felt as if Atwood was bored with her own novel.

Everything a Novel Should Be

I really enjoyed this book, and particularly, the writing style of the author. She is able to go backwards and forwards in the timeline, and use long descriptors without the story feeling bogged down or awkward.

I enjoyed “seeing” the inner perspectives of each of the three women: Tony, Charis and Roz as they come in contact with the dark figure of Xenia.

There are so many memorable quotes from the text, but I especially love the one which addresses the male gaze, expressing so brutally straightforward and yet so relevant to the context of the story of these women.

This book is everything a novel aspires to be: a commentary on life; realistic fiction; humorously-entertaining examination of romantic attachment.

Engrossing

This story is so well written and the narrator is perfect. MargeretAtwood is brilliant once again.

Perfect audio book.

Great story, I wish there was part 2. Beautiful language. Attwood is my new favorite author.

Twisty mystery

Every time I thought I had the plot figured out, it twisted away from me, until the very end. The 4 women the story is about are drastically different but their lives/fates are hopelessly intertwined. Highly recommend.

One of Atwood’s harder books

What I liked about this book is that it really got inside of these different women’s lives and thinking. It was interesting in how deeply Atwood explored what these three very different women thought and how they experienced the protagonist’s awful behavior. This alone brings to mind the idea that we see the world as we are (not as it is). Added to that is a protagonist who quickly assessed the women and fine tuned her outer story to match their inner turmoils. For all that, I may re-listen to the story soon.

What I didn’t like is that the story often left me feeling dreadful. Additionally, some parts are told in a sort of dreamy way that had my mind wandering more than listening. It was hard to pay attention. (Ahh, me seeing the world as I am.) So that all makes the book hard. I think some may find that hardness delighting and others turned off. I’m just “cool but hard” one star down for me.

Hate it/Like it

The narrator takes a while to get used to but isn’t awful.
The women in the story are walked all over by men and the misogyny is hard to get past.
Ending is not suspenseful or satisfying

Loved It

These are some strange women who I loved reading about. I don't think this is a book for a lot of people, but if you're a little off center you'll love it. The characters are over the top but that's what makes the story so great. I found the friendship between very different women especially interesting.I've had some meaningful friendships with people quite different from me. I hated for the book to end and started looking for another Margaret Atwood. Perfect narration

Excellent rendition of one of my favorite books!

Margaret Atwood has long been one of my favorite authors, and this is among her best stories. Beautifully read, perfectly paced.

PLEASE REPLACE THIS AWFUL VOICE ACTOR

The overdone voice acting gives major “cut from the community theater production of Twelfth Night but still calls self a tHeSpiAn” energy. A breathy, insincere preciousness that reminds me of every overconfident, under-talented liberal arts theater major from the 90s. I enjoy Atwood’s novels (far more than Atwood herself, who’s sadly turned into a transphobic troll) but this reading voice would be better suited to Harriet the Spy or other children’s literature, as only kids benefit from such exaggerated voice acting. It’s like sandpaper on my adult brain. Not going to be putting myself through another book read by this person.