The Tent

Alongside meditations on warlords, cat heaven, and orphans, the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments offers a sly pep talk to the ambitious young, laments the proliferation of photos of oneself, imagines an apocalypse of worms, and recalls Helen of Troy's childhood Kool-Aid stand.

In the title fable, a writer huddled inside a tent of paper engages in doodling as self-defense, scribbling on the walls in a frantic attempt to keep out encroaching horrors.

Adorned with he...