num_pages: 324
description: Offred is a national resource. She is a handmaid; viable ovaries make her a precious commodity in the Republic of Gilead, where the birthrate has plummeted to dangerous levels. Assigned to a Commander whose wife cannot produce, Offred's purpose is onefold: to breed.Dressed in red from veil to shoes, apart from the white wings which cover her face, Offred walks in silence each day past the Guardians of the Faith, who man each barrier. She exchanges tokens for food. She visits the Wall, where gender traitors and war criminals hang for atrocities, once legal, committed in the time before.At night in the bare room, Offred remembers: quaint, outdated customs such as gossiping, using paper money, jogging. Illegal thing: women having jobs, reading, her real name, love. Love used to be central to everything. Now it is irrelevant.Margaret Atwood, who has shown her formidable insights into the complexities of contemporary woman in Life Before Man and Bodily Harm, now turns her vision to the future. Through the eyes of Offred, we are shown the dark corners behind the calm facade of the Republic of Gilead: a regime which takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for women, and for men as well. Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of 21st-century America under post-feminist totalitarian rule gives full rein to Margaret Atwood's devastating irony, wit, and acute perception. The Handmaid's Tale confirms her reputations a major novelist.--front flap
language: English
title: THE HANDMAID'S TALE.
titlecomplete: THE HANDMAID'S TALE.
characters: Moira, Serena Joy, The Commander, Ofglen, Aunt Lydia, Nick (The Handmaid's Tale), Janine (The Handmaid's Tale), Offred
genres: Audiobook, Dystopia, Novels, Science Fiction, Literature, Fantasy, Classics, Feminism, Adult, Fiction
ratings_count: 1951012
places: Bangor, Maine, The United States of America, Republic of Gilead
series: The Handmaid’s Tale 
awards: awardedAt: 504950400000
name: Booker Prize, awardedAt: 504950400000
name: Nebula Award
category: Best Novel, awardedAt: 536486400000
name: Locus Award
category: Best SF Novel, awardedAt: 536486400000
name: Arthur C. Clarke Award, awardedAt: 1357027200000
name: Audie Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 504950400000
name: Los Angeles Times Book Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 536486400000
name: Prometheus Award
category: Best Novel, awardedAt: 788947200000
name: James Tiptree Jr. Award
category: Retrospective, awardedAt: 473414400000
name: Governor General's Literary Awards / Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 536486400000
name: SF Chronicle Award
category: Novel, awardedAt: 536486400000
name: Commonwealth Writers' Prize
category: Best Book in Caribbean and Canada, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: CBC Canada Reads, awardedAt: 1325404800000
name: Metų verstinė knyga
publisher: Jonathan Cape