Alias Grace

Alias Grace is a historical fiction novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. First published in 1996 by McClelland & Stewart, it won the Canadian Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

The story is about the notorious 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery in Upper Canada. Two servants of the Kinnear household, Grace Marks and James McDermott, were convicted of the crime. McDermott was hanged and Marks was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Although the novel is based on factual events, Atwood constructs a narrative with a fictional doctor, Simon Jordan, who researches the case. Although ostensibly conducting research into criminal behaviour, he slowly becomes personally involved in the story of Grace Marks and seeks to reconcile the mild mannered woman he sees with the murder of which she has been convicted.

Atwood also wrote an earlier work, the 1974 CBC Television film The Servant Girl, about Marks. However, in Alias Grace Atwood says that she has changed her opinion on the question of Marks' culpability.

The novel is written from various points of view, told mostly through the eyes of Grace Marks and her "alienist" doctor, Doctor Jordan (employing first and third person respectively). The shifting point of view makes the text appear disjointed and adds to the effect of uncertainty in the narrative. When written from Grace's point of view, the reader is never sure if Grace is speaking or thinking as Atwood refuses to use punctuation to indicate either.

The use of "could" is prevalent in Grace's point of view narrative, allowing us to wonder if she is making the story up, or if she is telling the truth.

See also

• Southern Ontario Gothic

External links

• Margaret Atwood Profile at Bold Type Exclusive interviews, a book excerpt, and an audio excerpt; plus text of an 1843 letter used as research for the novel.