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Margaret Atwood reveals title and jacket for Hag-Seed
Margaret Atwood has revealed that the title of her upcoming novel retelling Shakespeare's The Tempest for Hogarth will be Hag-Seed.
The announcement, also unveiling the book's cover (below), was shared through the author's Twitter account yesterday (Monday 22nd February).
Atwood has been signed up to retell Shakespeare's play The Tempest - described by the author as "always a favourite" - with Hogarth since September 2013.
The project series, which sees Shakespeare's works retold by today's acclaimed and bestselling novelists, launched in October last year, when Jeanette Winterson's take on The Winter’s Tale (The Gap of Time) published in over 20 countries.
Other writers signed up to the project include Howard Jacobson, retelling The Merchant of Venice (Shylock is My Name, scheduled for February) and Anne Tyler, reimagining The Taming of the Shrew (Vinegar Girl, scheduled for June). The first four novels in the series will be followed by Tracy Chevalier’s Othello, Gillian Flynn’s Hamlet, Jo Nesbo’s Macbeth and Edward St Aubyn's King Lear.
In Atwood's version, a theatre director Felix is unceremoniously ousted from his role as the artistic director of a festival. But when he lands a gig teaching theatre in a prison, he finds an opportunity for revenge...
The book, which is fourth in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, will be published on 6th October 2016, simultaneously across the English-speaking world in print, digital and audio.
Becky Hardie, deputy publishing director at Chatto & Windus and Hogarth, said: "'Hag-Seed' is just one of many insults Prospero flings at Caliban in The Tempest. There’s a lot of Shakespearean swearing in this new Tempest adventure, too, but also a mischief, curiosity and vigour that’s entirely Atwood and is sure to delight her fans."
