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      The Handmaid's Tale

      by Margaret Atwood
      Published
      Jan 1985
      Main Genre
      Science Fiction Romance Sci-Fi Romance
      Rating
      Buy on Amazon Book
      Series
      Gilead Book 1

      About This Book

      A gripping vision of our society radically overturned by a theocratic revolution, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale has become one of the most powerful and most widely read novels of our time.

      Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures because women are not allowed to read. She must pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for in a time of declining birthrates her value lies in her fertility, and failure means exile to the dangerously polluted Colonies. Offred can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Now she navigates the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules.

      Like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid's Tale has endured not only as a literary landmark but as a warning of a possible future that is still chillingly relevant.

      Series Placement

      Series
      Gilead
      Book 1
      View full series order

      Awards

      Genres & Themes

      Genres

      General Fiction Romance Speculative Fiction Suspense

      Subgenres

      Alternative History Dystopian Fantasy Literary Science Fiction Science Fiction Romance

      Themes

      Movie/TV Adaptations

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      Aug 1986 Bantam ISBN13 9780770421151 ISBN10 0770421156
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      Dec 1986 Fawcett ISBN13 9780449212608 ISBN10 0449212602
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      Feb 1986 Houghton Mifflin ISBN13 9780547345666 ISBN10 0547345666
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      Feb 1986 Memories of Ages Press ISBN13 9784592317173 ISBN10 4592317173
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      Apr 1987 G.K. Hall & Company ISBN13 9780816141722 ISBN10 081614172X
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