Weight

Description

Condemned to shoulder the world "for ever" by the gods he dared defy, freedom seems unattainable to Atlas. But then he receives an unexpected visit from Heracles, the one man strong enough to share the burden, and it seems they can strike a bargain that might release him ... Jeanette Winterson asks difficult questions about the nature of choice and coercion in her dazzling retelling of the myth of Atlas and Heracles. Visionary and inventive, believable and intimate, Weight turns the familiar on its head to show us ourselves in a new light.

Jeanette Winterson's first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, won the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel. Since then she has published many other novels, including The Passion, Written on the Body and The PowerBook, a collection of short stories, a book of essays, and children's picture books. She has adapted her work for TV, film and stage. Her books are published in 32 countries.

* ...alternatively earthy and mythopoetic, funny, meditative and personal...Winterson's Atlas is a very personable narrator, poetic and contemplative...Winterson artfully illustrates the interplay of free will and destiny, desire and responsibility. She retells a resonant old story beautifully. Independent on Sunday * It's a quick read with Winterson in light and accessible mode, and the autobiographical passages dealing with how the legend has relevance to her own life fit neatly alongside the retelling. The Herald * Weight is a masterpiece. As one of the inaugural volumes of the innovative Canongate myths series, it rewrites and reconfirms what fiction is, was, and might become. Scotland on Sunday * Winterson's precise prose explores issues of loneliness, responsibility and freedom with clarity and vision, offering the gift of seeing things afresh. The Good Book Guide