Faustine

<p><i>''...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?''</i><br><br>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.<br><br>''Brilliant''. Penelope Fitzgerald, <i>Evening Standard</i><br><br>''An elegant and bitter story... an angry diagnosis of consumerism, pollution, wealth, poverty and war...'' <i>Times Literary Supplement</i><br><br>''It is a masterpiece. Or, as the Devil himself might say, one hell of a book.'' <i>Daily Mail</i></p>