Faustine

''...I met the sad menopausee and offered her, at the flick of a switch, a return of beauty, youth, and desire. And - after all, I''m no stinge-merchant - power and money as well. Why not? If a man, such as Dr Faustus, was offered such commodities by myself... why not a woman, in this age of equality?''

Emma Tennant''s ingenious modern-day reworking of the Faust legend describes a young woman''s dark discovery of just what befell her kindly long-lost grandmother.

''Brilliant''. Penelope Fitzgerald, Evening Standard

''An elegant and bitter story... an angry diagnosis of consumerism, pollution, wealth, poverty and war...'' Times Literary Supplement

''It is a masterpiece. Or, as the Devil himself might say, one hell of a book.'' Daily Mail