About the book
Set in a near-future New England, Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel imagines the Republic of Gilead, a patriarchal, totalitarian theocracy that has overthrown the United States government. Women may no longer read or own property, and the colour of their clothing marks their rank. The narrator, Offred, is a Handmaid, forcibly assigned to bear children for a Commander in an age of declining births. Allowed out once a day to shop, she remembers the years before, when she had a husband, a daughter, a job and money of her own. Winner of the Governor General's Award in 1985 and of the first Arthur C. Clarke Award, it has been adapted as a film, an opera and a 2017 television series.
Dua Lipa chose it for her Service95 Book Club, saying it terrified her in high school when she could still treat it as dystopian fiction, and that she is no longer so sure. Emma Watson also included it on her Our Shared Shelf reading list.
We hope you love the books people recommend! Just so you know, The CEO Library may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page.
This book has 3 recommendations
Grady Booch (Founding Member/Agile Alliance)
I read this several years ago but — much like Orwell’s 1984 — it seems particularly relevant given our current political morass.
Margaret Atwood: iconic, heroic… prophetic? My monthly read for November is The Handmaid’s Tale, a book that terrified me when I read it in high school, but which I could at least mentally file under ‘dystopian fiction’. Today, I’m not so sure.
On Emma Watson’s Our Shared Shelf - read shelf (Goodreads)
Get this book on Amazon | Barnes & Noble
See more books recommended by
Grady Booch, Dua Lipa, Emma Watson
See more books written by
Often recommended alongside
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (2 shared recommenders)