Old Babes in the Wood, by Margaret Atwood. Doubleday, 2023

 This latest book by Atwood, a collection of short stories, is divisible into two categories. There are several stories about a couple named Tig & Nell, from the time they are young right through Nell’s widowhood, as she adjusts to the absence of Tig. The rest of the stories are unconnected; some are sci-fi, some regular fiction. The quality is all over the place, too- some captivated me- I really liked the tales of Nell and Tig, even though the characters are kind of full of themselves at times. The story where Nell is going through Tig’s belongings after his death affected me deeply, as did “Morte de Smudgie”- an ode to Nell’s dead cat. The oddest is one where a snail finds his soul transposed into a human body. And of course, there’s the one where a woman goes to a spiritual medium to talk to the spirit of George Orwell…. Four stars.