In the "Acknowledgments" section of her new collection of stories, Stone Mattress: Nine Tales - her first since Moral Disorders in 2006 - Margaret Atwood has this to say about her subtitle: "Calling a piece of short fiction a 'tale' removes it at least slightly from the realm of mundane works and days, as it evokes the world of the folk tale, the wonder tale, and the long-ago teller of tales."