Cat's Eye

BY THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF THE HANDMAID'S TALE 'Irresistible . . . This book is about life for all of us. She is one of our finest novelists. Read it' THE TIMES 'Fantastic writing . . . a sharp study of a very female torture' GUARDIAN Elaine Risley, a painter, returns to Toronto to find herself overwhelmed by her past. Memories of childhood - unbearable betrayals and cruelties - surface relentlessly, forcing her to confront the spectre of Cordelia, once her best friend and tormentor, who has haunted her for forty years. 'Nightmarish, evocative, heartbreaking' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 'A brilliant, three-dimensional mosaic' BOSTON GLOBE 'The best book in a long time on female friendships . . . remarkable, funny and serious, brimming with uncanny wisdom' COSMOPOLITAN

BY THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF THE HANDMAID'S TALE 'Irresistible . . . This book is about life for all of us. She is one of our finest novelists. Read it' THE TIMES 'Fantastic writing . . . a sharp study of a very female torture' GUARDIAN Elaine Risley, a painter, returns to Toronto to find herself overwhelmed by her past. Memories of childhood - unbearable betrayals and cruelties - surface relentlessly, forcing her to confront the spectre of Cordelia, once her best friend and tormentor, who has haunted her for forty years. 'Nightmarish, evocative, heartbreaking' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 'A brilliant, three-dimensional mosaic' BOSTON GLOBE 'The best book in a long time on female friendships . . . remarkable, funny and serious, brimming with uncanny wisdom' COSMOPOLITAN

A breathtaking novel of a woman grappling with the tangled knot of her life -- f rom the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments Disturbing, humorous, and compassionate, Cat's Eye is the story of Elaine Risley, a controversial painter who returns to Toronto, the city of her youth, for a retrospective of her art. Engulfed by vivid images of the past, she reminisces about a trio of girls who initiated her into the the fierce politics of childhood and its secret world of friendship, longing, and betrayal. Elaine must come to terms with her own identity as a daughter, a lover, an artist, and a woman--but above all she must seek release form her haunting memories.