The Handmaid's Tale: A Novel

This classic, with an introduction from author Margaret Atwood herself, explores a world that was timely when released and remains a poignant work that resonates even today. The setting is a dystopian America, where population decline and environmental collapse has leg to a second Civil war that results in a regime taking power, the Republic of Gilead. Our protagonist if Offred, a woman subjugated by the Republic, where social roles are rigidly enforced and women are commodified and reproductively controlled. Offred is one of the few women left that can produce children and she is a handmaiden, enslaved to bear the children for one regime’s leaders. She is dispossessed of her relationships, including here husband and child, all her liberties and even her identity. Despite this, she has a will to live and a drive to perdure, hanging onto her memories. This book serves as a classic social critique but also a warning of forces that threaten to encroach upon autonomy and freedom.