The Handmaid's Tale

This dystopian, futuristic novel, set in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was published in 1986. It presents a future where a totalitarian theocracy has forced a certain class of fertile women to produce babies for elite barren couples. These "handmaids" are reduced to state property. Through the voice of Offred, a handmaid who mingles memories of her life before the revolution with her rebellious activities under the new regime, Atwood has created a terrifying future based on actual events.

The significance of The Handmaid's Tale caused Publishers Weekly to write that it "deserves an honored place on the small shelf of cautionary tales that have entered modern folklore--a place next to, and by no means inferior to, Brave New World and 1984."

The Random House readers’ page has interviews with the author – www.randomhouse.co.uk/readersgroup/

10 copies