Product Description

'Compulsively readable' Daily Telegraph

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #888 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-05
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
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...

About the Author
Margaret Atwood is Canada's most eminent novelist, poet and critic. Her books include The Edible Woman, Surfacing, Lady Oracle, Alias Grace, Cat's Eye, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize and The Handmaid's Tale, which won both the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction and the Governor-General's Award, was short-listed for the Booker Prize and made into a major film. She lives in Toronto with the writer Graeme Gibson and their daughter.

Customer Reviews

I don't get it...........
The Handmaid's Tale.

I don't get it. I'm sure it must be one of the greats because everyone seems to rave about it......but it just does nothing for me. I feel for Offred because of the situation she finds herself in and it's harsh, but it wasn't enough to make me want to keep turning pages to see if she'd be ok.

Hmmmmmm. I feel like I'm missing out on some secret or something. I wanted to love it :(

Hidden behind words...
I would never have chosen to read this novel - it sounded dark and depressing and a lot like a horror story. And I suppose it is a horror story. Of sorts. The latest offering at my book club, I began the first page with trepidation.
And could not put it down. Bizarrely, this odd book, with it's talk of 'Handmaids' and 'Eyes' and 'Unwomen' and 'Commanders', though at first glance appeared to be gobbledygook, was utterly engrossing. I expected to feel confused by what the heck was going on but never did - the story unfolded at such a brilliant pace, you just knew the answer was around the corner. Eventually. The story of Offred and her troubled, fascinating and truly awful life during the 'Gilead Regime' is one book I defy you not to finish.
And then read again...

Captivating and throught-provoking
The Handmaid's Tale transports you to a land where humans are made to live a life of quiet monotony and order, where everyone has their 'place'.'Offred' speaks to readers describing her new enforced life as a 'handmaid', which involves her being used as a 'vessel' to give commanders and their wives a much longed for child. This world echoes a very purest and suppressed existence for its inhabitants, and makes you think hard about the world we live in today. I found this book tended to lag in the middle, often bogged down with the over-use of descriptions, however the end more than made up for it!