The Robber Bride by Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood was originally published in the United States in 1993. It tells the story of three women who suffer betrayal at the hands of a fourth woman, Zenia. The novel was inspired by The Robber Bridegroom, a 19th century German fairy tale which Atwood updates to 1990s Toronto. It combines Atwood’s notable sense of humor with her attention to contemporary political issues such as feminism and environmentalism. The book was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award as well as being shortlisted for the James Tiptree Jr. Award. Atwood is the author of numerous books of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

Plot Summary

Tony, Charis, and Roz, three friends from college, meet at a fashionable restaurant in Toronto called The Toxique for their monthly luncheon. Three disparate personalities, they all have a single thing in common: a woman named Zenia, dead for five years, who wreaked havoc on their lives 20 years ago. Their differences become starkly apparent over small talk, and they wonder what holds them together as friends. Suddenly, Zenia walks in, very much alive, and their old fears and animosities rise quickly to the surface.

In college, Tony is small and studious. She is introverted and a loner, preferring her studies to the company of others. Her father’s involvement in World War II and his subsequent trauma instill in Tony a fascination with war. She currently teaches history at a university with a focus on wars and battle strategies. She meets Zenia through West, a fellow student she is interested in but is too awkward to approach. He introduces her to Zenia, his girlfriend at the time. Zenia cozies up to Tony, coaxes her out of her shell, and introduces her to a world of hipsters and nightlife she has never known before. She pretends to be Tony’s best friend but has a habit of borrowing money and not repaying it. One day, she vanishes with $1000 of Tony’s money and most of West’s. While West is heartbroken over Zenia’s disappearance, he and Tony fall in love and eventually marry. Then, two years later, Zenia reappears and persuades West to come back with her, only to dump him yet again, leaving him twice heartbroken.

Charis—formerly Karen—is a victim of emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of her mother and uncle. She spends a summer with her grandmother, a sturdy, salt-of-the-earth woman who is self-reliant and possesses mystical healing powers. Her love of nature bonds the two women; Charis learns how to farm, how to raise chickens, and most importantly how to see the world through a spiritual lens. Charis knows Tony and Roz from college, but she is too preoccupied with her own trauma to be a part of that life. She eventually buys a house on an island off the coast of Toronto that is isolated, wind-swept, and perfect for communing with nature. There, she meets Billy, an American draft dodger to whom she provides refuge. Soon, they fall in love, though Billy is itinerant, always looking over his shoulder for government agents who might arrest him for his involvement in an act of domestic terrorism. One day, Zenia shows up looking sick and battered, asking for help. Charis takes her in and attempts to help her heal, holistically. Even when Zenia overstays her welcome and drives a wedge between Charis and Billy, she lingers, pleading illness. Eventually, when Charis becomes pregnant, she asks Zenia to leave. In retaliation, Zenia leaves with Billy, possibly turning him over to the authorities.

Roz, an ebullient, dynamic personality in college, also comes from a damaged childhood. Raised in a strict Catholic home, her father was involved in secret business during World War II. She learns upon his return that she is half-Jewish and that her father, though he helped a few Jews to escape persecution, also profited from the conflict, stealing rare artifacts and reselling them years later. She eventually assumes control of her father’s successful real estate development company and marries Mitch, a lawyer who spends as much time having affairs as practicing law. They have a son and twin daughters to whom Roz is passionately devoted.

They meet Zenia at a restaurant where she claims to be a freelance journalist working on a story of workplace discrimination. She also blurts out that Roz’s father saved her life during the war. Intrigued, Roz meets her for drinks to hear the story. Zenia alleges to be a war orphan raised by an aunt, and she claims that Roz’s father provided the forged documents that allowed her and her aunt to escape the Nazis. Roz hires her to write for her magazine, WiseWomanWorld, and she eventually promotes Zenia to executive editor. In time, Zenia seduces Mitch. He leaves Roz and moves in with Zenia, only to have Zenia cast him out just like she did with West. Mitch is devastated but refuses to accept defeat. He goes after her until one day, he turns up dead from an apparent suicide.

Now that Zenia is back, Tony, Roz, and Charis plot individual strategies. They each visit Zenia in her hotel room at different times on the same day, determined to confront her over her transgressions. Tony goes to the room armed with a pistol but decides against killing Zenia. Charis wants only to find out about Billy, but Zenia’s vicious verbal attacks drive her out of the room in tears. Roz’s attempt to hold Zenia accountable is met with blackmail; Zenia claims that Roz’s eldest son, Larry, is dealing drugs and that she will turn him in unless Roz pays her off. As the three friends meet at The Toxique to share their stories, Charis has a sudden vision of Zenia’s death—a vision confirmed when they go to the hotel. Zenia has fallen, jumped, or been pushed from her 14th-floor balcony. As the women struggle to cope with Zenia’s death and her lasting impact on them, they come together to sprinkle her cremated ashes in Lake Ontario and to celebrate an end to a mean-spirited life but also a powerful and resilient one.