description: 11 hoursThroughout her career, Margaret Atwood has played with different literary genres in her novels--historical fiction (Alias Grace), pulp fiction (The Blind Assassin), the comedy of manners (The Robber Bride)--but no foray into genre fiction has been as successful as her turn to speculative fiction in The Handmaid's Tale. Published in 1985, it echoes Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, but a vibrant feminism drives Atwood's portrait of a futuristic dystopia. In the Republic of Gilead, we see a world devastated by toxic chemicals and nuclear fallout and dominated by a repressive Christian fundamentalism. The birthrate has plunged, and most women can no longer bear children. Offred is one of Gilead's Handmaids, who as official breeders are among the chosen few who can still become pregnant. The Handmaid's Tale is an imaginatively audacious novel that is at once a page-turning psychological thriller, a moving love story, and a chilling warning about what might be waiting for us around the corner. What ultimately makes it stand out is Atwood's ability to balance a passionate political statement with finely wrought literary fiction. The Handmaid's Tale is a remarkable work by one of Canada's most inventive writers. --Jeffrey Canton
language: English
title: The Handmaid's Tale
titlecomplete: The Handmaid's Tale
characters: Offred, Ofglen, Serena Joy, Aunt Lydia, Janine (The Handmaid's Tale), The Commander, Nick (The Handmaid's Tale), Moira
genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Literature, Adult, Classics, Feminism, Novels, Fantasy, Dystopia, Audiobook
ratings_count: 1952082
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: Recorded Books