Margaret Atwood follows her international best-seller The Handmaid's Tale with a breathtaking contemporary novel of a woman grappling with the tangled knot of her own life. Returning to the city of her youth for a retrospective of her art, controversial painter Elaine Risley is engulfed by vivid images of her past. Strongest of all is the figure of Cordelia, leader of the trio of girls who initiated her into 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, and a woman--but above all, she must seek release from Cordelia's haunting memory. Disturbing, hilarious, and compassionate, Cat's Eye is Margaret Atwood's most deeply felt work of fiction to date.