The Handmaid's Tale
By Margaret Atwood
Why this book?
I first read The Handmaid’s Tale at university, long before the TV series existed! It both fascinated and appalled me. Its heroine, Offred, has no control over her life, yet she attempts to rebel against the system using whatever means she can. Atwood asserts that everything which happens in the book has happened in real life, somewhere in the world. She is right, of course, and that’s the most shocking aspect of dystopian literature. This compelling story has always stayed with me and in part inspired my own most recent series, set in a dystopian world where women, and not men, have all the power.
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