The Handmaid's Tale

<p><b>Margaret Atwood</b> is the author of more than fifty books of fiction poetry and critical essays. Her novels include <i>Cat's Eye </i><i>The Robber Bride </i><i>Alias Grace</i> <i>The Blind Assassin </i>and the <i>MaddAddam </i>trilogy. Her 1985 classic <i>The Handmaid's Tale</i> was followed in 2019 by a sequel <i>The Testaments</i> which was a global number one bestseller and shared the Booker Prize. In 2020 she published <i>Dearly</i> her first collection of poetry for a decade and in 2022 <i>Burning Questions</i> a collection of essays was a <i>Sunday Times</i> bestseller. <br><br>Atwood has won numerous awards including the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society the Franz Kafka Prize the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature. She has also worked as a cartoonist illustrator librettist playwright and puppeteer. She lives in Toronto Canada.</p> <p><b>Margaret Atwood</b> is the author of more than fifty books of fiction poetry and critical essays. Her novels include <i>Cat's Eye </i><i>The Robber Bride </i><i>Alias Grace</i> <i>The Blind Assassin </i>and the <i>MaddAddam </i>trilogy. Her 1985 classic <i>The Handmaid's Tale</i> was followed in 2019 by a sequel <i>The Testaments</i> which was a global number one bestseller and shared the Booker Prize. In 2020 she published <i>Dearly</i> her first collection of poetry for a decade and in 2022 <i>Burning Questions</i> a collection of essays was a <i>Sunday Times</i> bestseller. <br><br>Atwood has won numerous awards including the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society the Franz Kafka Prize the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature. She has also worked as a cartoonist illustrator librettist playwright and puppeteer. She lives in Toronto Canada.</p> A fantastic chilling story. And so powerfully feminist Compulsively readable The mother of all feminist dystopian novels 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 <i>The Handmaid's Tale </i>is both a superlative exercise in science fiction and a profoundly felt moral story Out of a narrative shadowed by terror gleam sharp perceptions brilliant intense images and sardonic wit Margaret Atwood is a wry and perceptive observer of society as well as an original storyteller The images of brilliant emptiness are one of the most striking aspects of this novel about totalitarian blindness...the effect is chilling 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 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 <p><b>** THE <i>SUNDAY TIMES</i> NO. 1 BESTSELLER **</b><br><b>**A BBC BETWEEN COVERS BIG JUBILEE READ**</b><br><br><b>Go back to where it all began with the dystopian novel behind the award-winning TV series.</b><br><b><br>'As relevant today as it was when Atwood wrote it' <i>Guardian</i></b><br><br><i>I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no light without shadow; or rather no shadow unless there is also light.</i><br><br>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.<br><br>Masterfully conceived and executed this haunting vision of the future places Margaret Atwood at the forefront of dystopian fiction.<br><br><b>'A fantastic chilling story. And so powerfully feminist' Bernardine Evaristo author of <i>Girl Woman Other.</i></b></p> <p><b>** THE <i>SUNDAY TIMES</i> NO. 1 BESTSELLER **</b><br><b>**A BBC BETWEEN COVERS BIG JUBILEE READ**</b><br><br><b>Go back to where it all began with the dystopian novel behind the award-winning TV series.</b><br><b><br>'As relevant today as it was when Atwood wrote it' <i>Guardian</i></b><br><br><i>I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no light without shadow; or rather no shadow unless there is also light.</i><br><br>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.<br><br>Masterfully conceived and executed this haunting vision of the future places Margaret Atwood at the forefront of dystopian fiction.<br><br><b>'A fantastic chilling story. And so powerfully feminist' Bernardine Evaristo author of <i>Girl Woman Other.</i></b></p>