“Attempting to diminish women by name-calling is nothing new,” notes Sandi Toksvig in her introduction to Virago’s 50th birthday anthology. Founded to counteract the under-representation of female writers, Virago has become a publishing powerhouse. Yet the public discourse and the online treatment of women grow ever more aggressive. I’m not sure this anthology can harness the power of a Siren or a Spitfire (to give two sample story titles) to stem the tide, but it’s certainly fun.
Furies is a starry collection, with new stories by four-time Booker-nominated Ali Smith, Emma Donoghue – whose novel Room was adapted into a hit Hollywood film – Margaret Atwood and Women’s prize for fiction-winner Kamila Shamsie, among others. Most of the titles – rather vintage-seeming gendered insults – have a degree of ambiguity baked in, perhaps even a lurking admiration for the distinctive, unpredictable woman. Who wouldn’t be somewhat flattered to be called a Warrior, a Fury, a Dragon or even a She-Devil? Other stories take on the Wench, Hussy and Tygress – the latter in a lovely piece by Claire Kohda, whose narrator’s beloved mother is a tiger who would “always give me a long kiss on the forehead … and her whiskers would tickle my eyelids.”
Shamsie has the most interesting and unexpected label, taking on the Churail, an Urdu word for a mournful, ghostly harbinger. Her story takes in migration, grief and the climate and is appropriately haunting and subtle. Meanwhile, Helen Oyeyemi has a lot of fun with the Vituperator, which features an AI trolling system that makes passive-aggressive online attacks: “It generates no-holds-barred insults directed at family members both living and deceased, and it alternates these with compliments that are extremely unpleasant in ways that you can’t quite put your finger on.”
Given writers of such calibre, it’s no surprise that Furies is a slick collection of clever tales, with something for bluestockings and banshees alike.
• Furies: Stories of the Wicked, Wild and Untamed by various authors is published by Virago (£16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
