The Handmaid's Tale

Atwood, Margaret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099740915 ISBN 13: 9780099740919

Publisher: Vintage, 1996

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Discover the dystopian novel that started a phenomenon before you read the 2019 Booker Prize-winning sequel The Testaments

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Offred is a Handmaid in The Republic of Gilead, a religious totalitarian state in what was formerly known as the United States. She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford – her assigned name, Offred, means ‘of Fred’. She has only one function: to breed. If Offred refuses to enter into sexual servitude to repopulate a devastated world, she will be hanged. Yet even a repressive state cannot eradicate hope and desire. As she recalls her pre-revolution life in flashbacks, Offred must navigate through the terrifying landscape of torture and persecution in the present day, and between two men upon which her future hangs.

Masterfully conceived and executed, this haunting vision of the future places Margaret Atwood at the forefront of dystopian fiction.

‘A fantastic, chilling story. And so powerfully feminist’ Bernadine Evaristo, author of GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER

‘This novel seems ever more vital in the present day’ Observer

READ THE TESTAMENTS, THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING SEQUEL TO THE HANDMAID’S TALE, TODAY

Review:

"A fantastic, chilling story. And so powerfully feminist"

"Compulsively readable" (Daily Telegraph)

"Out of a narrative shadowed by terror, gleam sharp perceptions, brilliant intense images and sardonic wit" (Independent)

"The Handmaid's Tale is both a superlative exercise in science fiction and a profoundly felt moral story"

"Moving, vivid and terrifying. I only hope it's not prophetic" (The Listener)

From the Publisher:

'Compulsively readable' Daily Telegraph