Alias Grace is a historical fiction novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, published in 1996 by McClelland & Stewart. The novel is based on the real-life 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery in Upper Canada (now Ontario). Atwood first encountered the story of Grace Marks, the servant convicted in the case, through Susanna Moodie's book Life in the Clearings Versus the Bush, and she had previously explored Moodie's work in her 1970 poetry collection The Journals of Susanna Moodie.
The novel fictionalizes the life of Grace Marks, a young Irish immigrant and domestic servant who was sentenced to life imprisonment for her alleged role in the murders. Atwood weaves a complex narrative that includes the fictional character of Dr. Simon Jordan, a psychiatrist who interviews Grace to uncover the truth about her involvement. The book explores themes of memory, trauma, class, gender, and the unreliability of narrative, blending historical records with imaginative reconstruction. Alias Grace won the Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, cementing its status as a landmark work in Canadian literature.
