An unforgettable portrait of defiance and authoritarian rule, The Handmaid's Tale a classic dystopian vision of a terrifyingly believable future. A powerful, devastatingly wry exploration of female oppression, it has resounding resonance for our times.
Utterly compelling and terrifyingly real, The Handmaid's Tale is a classic work of feminist fiction and a vivid dystopia that speaks afresh to every new generation of readers.
A chair, a table, a lamp. Above, on the white ceiling, a relief ornament in the shape of a wreath, and in the centre of it a blank space, plastered over, like the place in a face where the eye has been taken out. There must have been a chandelier, once. They’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to.
Offred lives in The Republic of Gilead. To some, it is a utopian vision of the future, a place of safety, a place where everyone has a purpose, a function. But The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed.
If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.
Brilliantly conceived and executed, The Handmaid's Tale is a bold evocation of twenty-first century America that gives full rein to Margaret Atwood's devastating irony, wit and astute perception.
Are you ready to return to Gilead? Don't miss the year's most anticipated book.
Now readers can step back into the world of The Handmaid's Tale with Margaret Atwood's sequel, The Testaments. Published on 10 September 2019 it reflects the tumultuous political and social events of today in an unmissable new story for our times.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781784873189
Number of pages: 336
Weight: 234 g
Dimensions: 197 x 128 x 20 mm
A fantastic, chilling story. And so powerfully feminist - Bernadine Evaristo
Compulsively readable - Daily Telegraph
The mother of all feminist dystopian novels - Red
The novel satirises the strain of evangelical puritanism in American culture and the objectification and control of women's bodies. It is more broadly a contemporary myth of despotic power, and how such power deforms those who are subjected to it - Observer
The Handmaid's Tale is both a superlative exercise in science fiction and a profoundly felt moral story - Angela Carter
Out of a narrative shadowed by terror, gleam sharp perceptions, brilliant intense images and sardonic wit - Peter Kemp, Independent
Margaret Atwood is a wry and perceptive observer of society as well as an original storyteller - Psychologist
The images of brilliant emptiness are one of the most striking aspects of this novel about totalitarian blindness...the effect is chilling - Linda Taylor, Sunday Times
Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of twenty-first century America gives full rein to Margaret Atwood’s devastating irony, wit and astute perception - Essence
It's hard to believe it is 25 years since it was first published, but its freshness, its anger and its disciplined, taut prose have grown more admirable in the intervening years... Atwood's novel was an ingenious enterprise that showed, with out hysteria, the real dangers to women of closing their eyes to patriarchal - Lesley McDowell, Independent on Sunday
Good Book
Have been sorting through some boxes, whilst on lockdown and came across this book with a few others. That had been set aside for the local charity shop. I have a little note book that, I rate books. That I have read... More
I personally haven’t read anything like this before so naturally I was hooked from the start. Set in a version of the future it’s gripping, shocking and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I enjoyed this so much I... More
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