Canongate Myth Series is a series of short novels in which ancient myths

Mythology

The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...

 from myriad cultures are reimagined and rewritten by contemporary authors. The project was conceived in 1999 by Jamie Byng

Jamie Byng

James Edmund "Jamie" Byng works for the independent publishing firm Canongate Books.-Family and education:Byng is the second son of the 8th Earl of Stafford and Jennifer May, brother to the author Georgia Byng and grew up in Abbots Worthy, Hampshire. He was educated at Winchester College and...

, owner of the independent foundation Scottish publisher Canongate Books

Canongate Books

Canongate Books is a Scottish independent publishing firm based in Edinburgh; it is named for The Canongate, an area of the city. It is most recognised for publishing the Booker Prizewinner Life of Pi...

, and the first three titles in the series were published on 21 October 2005. Though the initial novellas received mixed-to-positive reviews, the project was heralded by many in the press as "bold" and "ambitious", with Metro

Metro (Associated Metro Limited)

Metro is a free daily newspaper in the United Kingdom published by Associated Newspapers Ltd . It is available from Monday to Friday each week on many public transport services across the United Kingdom.-History:The paper was launched in London in 1999, and can now be found in 14 UK urban centres...

calling it "one of the most ambitious acts of mass storytelling in recent years".

The series is intended to have an international focus, with contributing authors that have included Russian writer Victor Pelevin

Victor Pelevin

Victor Olegovich Pelevin is a Russian fiction writer. His books usually carry the outward conventions of the science fiction genre, but are used to construct involved, multi-layered postmodernist texts, fusing together elements of pop culture and esoteric philosophies...

 and Israeli author David Grossman

David Grossman

David Grossman is an Israeli author. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages, and have won numerous prizes.He is also a noted activist and critic of Israeli policy toward Palestinians. The Yellow Wind, his non-fiction study of the life of Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied...

. Also, the first title in the series, Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong FRSL , is a British author and commentator who is the author of twelve books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic nun, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical faith...

's A Short History of Myth, was published the same day in 33 countries and 28 languages, in what The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

called "the biggest simultaneous publication ever." As of 2008, nine books have been published in the series, with Byng hoping to eventually publish 100.

Three titles were published in the United Kingdom on 1 November 2007: Binu and the Great Wall by Su Tong

Su Tong

Su Tong is the pen name of a Chinese writer born in Suzhou who is now based in Nanjing. His real name is Tong Zhonggui .He entered into the Department of Chinese of Beijing Normal University in 1980 and started to publish novels in 1983. He is now the vice president of Jiangsu Writers Association...

, Girl Meets Boy

Girl Meets Boy

Girl Meets Boy is a 2007 novel by Scottish author Ali Smith and published by Canongate in the Canongate Myth Series. It was one of the 'best books of 2007' according to critics at The Independent.-Plot introduction:...

by Ali Smith

Ali Smith

Ali Smith is a British writer.She was born to working-class parents, raised in a council house in Inverness and now lives in Cambridge. She studied at the University of Aberdeen and then at Newnham College, Cambridge, for a PhD that was never finished. She worked as a lecturer at University of...

, and Where Three Roads Meet by Salley Vickers

Salley Vickers

Salley Vickers is an English novelist whose works include the word-of-mouth bestseller Miss Garnet's Angel, Mr. Golightly's Holiday, The Other Side of You and Where Three Roads Meet, a retelling of the Oedipus myth to Sigmund Freud in the last months of his life...

. Instalments in the series are also forthcoming from the authors A. S. Byatt

A. S. Byatt

Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...

, Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe

Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe popularly known as Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic...

 and Natsuo Kirino

Natsuo Kirino

is a Japanese novelist and a leading figure in the recent boom of female writers of Japanese detective fiction.-Biography:A prolific writer, she is most famous for her 1997 novel, Out, which received the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, Japan's top mystery award, and was a finalist for the 2004...

.

Michel Faber

Michel Faber

Michel Faber is a Dutch-born writer of fiction. He writes in English.Faber was born in The Hague, Netherlands. He and his parents emigrated to Australia in 1967...

's contribution, The Fire Gospel was published in 2008. 2009 saw the publication of Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić

Dubravka Ugrešic

Dubravka Ugrešić is a Croatian writer who lives in the Netherlands.- Background and education:Ugrešić was born in 1949 in Kutina, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia., She studied Comparative Literature and Russian Language and Literature at the University of Zagreb, pursuing parallel careers as a...

 and The Hurricane Party by Klas Östergren

Klas Östergren

Klas Östergren is a Swedish novelist, screenwriter and translator who, in 1999, was nominated for his country's top film award, the Guldbagge and, in 2005, received the grand prize bestowed by the country's premier literary society, Samfundet De Nio.A native of Stockholm, Klas Östergren was twenty...

.

Orphans of Eldorado by Milton Hatoum and The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ is a novel by Philip Pullman. Published in 2010 by Canongate Books, as part of the Canongate Myth Series, it retells the story of Jesus as if he were two people, brothers, "Jesus" and "Christ," with contrasting personalities; Jesus being a moral and godly...

by Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...

 were published in 2010.

List of titles

Title	Author	Mythological characters	Publication date
A Short History of Myth	Karen Armstrong Karen Armstrong Karen Armstrong FRSL , is a British author and commentator who is the author of twelve books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic nun, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical faith...		21 October 2005   19 October 2005
The Penelopiad The Penelopiad The Penelopiad is a novella by Margaret Atwood. It was published in 2005 as part of the first set of books in the Canongate Myth Series where contemporary authors rewrite ancient myths. In The Penelopiad, Penelope reminisces on the events during the Odyssey, life in Hades, Odysseus, Helen, and her...	Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...	Penelope Penelope In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope is the faithful wife of Odysseus, who keeps her suitors at bay in his long absence and is eventually reunited with him.... , Odysseus Odysseus Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....	21 October 2005   19 October 2005
Weight	Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Winterson OBE is a British novelist.-Early years:Winterson was born in Manchester and adopted on 21 January 1960. She was raised in Accrington, Lancashire, by Constance and John William Winterson...	Atlas Atlas (mythology) In Greek mythology, Atlas was the primordial Titan who supported the heavens. Although associated with various places, he became commonly identified with the Atlas Mountains in north-west Africa... , Heracles Heracles Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...	21 October 2005
The Helmet of Horror	Victor Pelevin Victor Pelevin Victor Olegovich Pelevin is a Russian fiction writer. His books usually carry the outward conventions of the science fiction genre, but are used to construct involved, multi-layered postmodernist texts, fusing together elements of pop culture and esoteric philosophies... (trans. Andrew Bromfield Andrew Bromfield Andrew Bromfield is a British editor and translator of Russian works. He is a founding editor of the Russian literature journal Glas, and has translated into English works by Boris Akunin, Vladimir Voinovich, Irina Denezhkina, Victor Pelevin, and Sergei Lukyanenko, among other writers.-Bibliography... )	Theseus Theseus For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was the mythical founder-king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, both of whom Aethra had slept with in one night. Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus, or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were... , the Minotaur Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur , as the Greeks imagined him, was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, "part man and part bull"...	2005   2 March 2006   October 2006   30 November 2006
Lion's Honey	David Grossman David Grossman David Grossman is an Israeli author. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages, and have won numerous prizes.He is also a noted activist and critic of Israeli policy toward Palestinians. The Yellow Wind, his non-fiction study of the life of Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied... (trans. Stuart Schoffman)	Samson Samson Samson, Shimshon ; Shamshoun or Sampson is the third to last of the Judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Tanakh ....	2005   23 March 2006 1 June 2006   October 2006   04 December 2006
Dream Angus	Alexander McCall Smith Alexander McCall Smith Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE, is a Rhodesian-born Scottish writer and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In the late 20th century, McCall Smith became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees...	Aengus Aengus In Irish mythology, Óengus , Áengus , or Aengus or Aonghus , is a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann and probably a god of love, youth and poetic inspiration...	12 September 2006 5 October 2006   October 2006
Anna In w grobowcach świata (Anna In and the Tombs of the World)	Olga Tokarczuk Olga Tokarczuk Olga Tokarczuk is one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful Polish writers of her generation, particularly noted for the hallmark mythical tone of her writing. She trained as a psychologist at the University of Warsaw. She has published a collection of poems, three novels,...  (not translated)	Inanna Inanna Inanna, also spelled Inana is the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare....	2006
Girl Meets Boy Girl Meets Boy Girl Meets Boy is a 2007 novel by Scottish author Ali Smith and published by Canongate in the Canongate Myth Series. It was one of the 'best books of 2007' according to critics at The Independent.-Plot introduction:...	Ali Smith Ali Smith Ali Smith is a British writer.She was born to working-class parents, raised in a council house in Inverness and now lives in Cambridge. She studied at the University of Aberdeen and then at Newnham College, Cambridge, for a PhD that was never finished. She worked as a lecturer at University of...	Iphis Iphis Iphis was a name attributed to three individuals:-Daughter of Ligdus :According to Greek mythology and the Roman poet Ovid, who wrote about transformations in his Metamorphoses, Iphis was the daughter of Telethusa and Ligdus in Crete. Ligdus had already threatened to kill his pregnant wife's...	1 November 2007   21 December 2007   26 September 2008
Binu and the Great Wall	Su Tong Su Tong Su Tong is the pen name of a Chinese writer born in Suzhou who is now based in Nanjing. His real name is Tong Zhonggui .He entered into the Department of Chinese of Beijing Normal University in 1980 and started to publish novels in 1983. He is now the vice president of Jiangsu Writers Association... (trans. Howard Goldblatt Howard Goldblatt Howard Goldblatt is Research Professor of Chinese at the University of Notre Dame. He is a translator of numerous works of contemporary Chinese/Taiwanese fiction, including The Taste of Apples by Huang Chunming and The Execution of Mayor Yin by Chen Ruoxi.Goldblatt received a B.A. from Long Beach... )	Meng Jiang, chinaheritagenewsletter.org	2006   October 2006 1 November 2007   18 February 2008
Where Three Roads Meet	Salley Vickers Salley Vickers Salley Vickers is an English novelist whose works include the word-of-mouth bestseller Miss Garnet's Angel, Mr. Golightly's Holiday, The Other Side of You and Where Three Roads Meet, a retelling of the Oedipus myth to Sigmund Freud in the last months of his life...	Oedipus Oedipus Oedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family... , Tiresias Tiresias In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo; Tiresias participated fully in seven generations at Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus...	1 November 2007   10 August 2008
Baba Yaga Laid an Egg	Dubravka Ugrešić Dubravka Ugrešic Dubravka Ugrešić is a Croatian writer who lives in the Netherlands.- Background and education:Ugrešić was born in 1949 in Kutina, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia., She studied Comparative Literature and Russian Language and Literature at the University of Zagreb, pursuing parallel careers as a...	Baba Yaga Baba Yaga Baba Yaga or Baba Roga is a haggish or witchlike character in Slavic folklore. She flies around on a giant pestle, kidnaps small children, and lives in a hut that stands on chicken legs...	April 2008 May 2009
The Fire Gospel	Michel Faber Michel Faber Michel Faber is a Dutch-born writer of fiction. He writes in English.Faber was born in The Hague, Netherlands. He and his parents emigrated to Australia in 1967...	Prometheus Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals...	November 2008
The Myth of Izanagi and Izanami	Natsuo Kirino Natsuo Kirino is a Japanese novelist and a leading figure in the recent boom of female writers of Japanese detective fiction.-Biography:A prolific writer, she is most famous for her 1997 novel, Out, which received the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, Japan's top mystery award, and was a finalist for the 2004...	Izanagi Izanagi is a deity born of the seven divine generations in Japanese mythology and Shinto, and is also referred to in the roughly translated Kojiki as "male-who-invites" or Izanagi-no-mikoto. It is also pronounced Izanaki-no-Okami.... , Izanami Izanami In Japanese mythology, is a goddess of both creation and death, as well as the former wife of the god Izanagi-no-Mikoto. She is also referred to as Izanami-no-kami.-Goddess of Creation:...	10 March 2009
Orphans of Eldorado	Milton Hatoum	Mythology of Amazonia	January 2008   2 July 2009
The Hurricane Party	Klas Östergren Klas Östergren Klas Östergren is a Swedish novelist, screenwriter and translator who, in 1999, was nominated for his country's top film award, the Guldbagge and, in 2005, received the grand prize bestowed by the country's premier literary society, Samfundet De Nio.A native of Stockholm, Klas Östergren was twenty...	Norse mythology Norse mythology Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...	2009
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ is a novel by Philip Pullman. Published in 2010 by Canongate Books, as part of the Canongate Myth Series, it retells the story of Jesus as if he were two people, brothers, "Jesus" and "Christ," with contrasting personalities; Jesus being a moral and godly...	Philip Pullman Philip Pullman Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...	Christianity	April 2010   28 October 2010
The End of the Gods	A. S. Byatt A. S. Byatt Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...	Ragnarok Ragnarök In Norse mythology, Ragnarök is a series of future events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures , the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water...	September 2011

This series was being published in hardback editions with a mass market paperback edition published later, but will now be published initially in either hardback or paperback.

External links

• TheMyths.co.uk, Canongate Myths official site
• The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, official book page