The Handmaid's Tale

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.