TEHRAN – “The Edible Woman”, Canadian writer Margaret Atwood’s debut novel published in 1969, has been published in Persian.

Lega Press is the publisher of the book translated by Razieh Jalali.

The novel put the bestselling author of “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Testaments” on the literary map. The Booker Prize winner is both a scathingly funny satire of consumerism and a heady exploration of emotional cannibalism.

Marian McAlpin is an “abnormally normal” young woman, according to her friends. A recent university graduate, she crafts consumer surveys for a market research firm, maintains an uneasy truce between her flighty roommate and their prudish landlady, and goes to parties with her solidly dependable boyfriend, Peter. 

But after Peter proposes marriage, things take a strange turn. Suddenly empathizing with the steak in a restaurant, Marian finds she is unable to eat meat. 

As the days go by, her feeling of solidarity extends to other categories of food, until there is almost nothing left that she can bring herself to consume. 

Those around her fail to notice Marian’s growing alienation until it culminates in an act of resistance that is as startling as it is imaginative. 

Marked by blazingly surreal humor and a colorful cast of eccentric characters, “The Edible Woman” is a groundbreaking work of fiction.

Atwood is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays.

Her novels include “Cat’s Eye”, “The Robber Bride”, “Alias Grace”, “The Blind Assassin” and the MaddAddam trilogy. 

Her 1985 classic, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, went back into the bestseller charts with the election of Donald Trump, when the Handmaids became a symbol of resistance against the disempowerment of women, and with the 2017 release of the award-winning Channel 4 TV series.

Her sequel, “The Testaments”, was published in 2019. It was an instant international bestseller and won the Booker Prize.

Atwood has won several other awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade and the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Edible Woman”.

MMS/YAW