The Handmaid’s Tale
(Margaret Atwood)

The Handmaid’s Tale was written in 1986. It’s author, Margaret Atwood, was born in Ottawa but has since traveled all over and lived in many other cities including London, Montreal, and Boston. She began writing The Handmaid’s Tale while living in West Berlin, and finished it in Alabama. Atwood is the author of over twenty books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. She is the winner of multiple honors and awards and has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times. 

Atwood was a recipient of the inaugural Arthur C. Clarke award for The Handmaid’s Tale in 1987. The Handmaid’s Tale is a work of science fiction that ponders what our society might be like if the United States was changed into a radical theocracy. It explores issues such as feminism and conservatism, religious extremism, political dissidence, and warfare. The novel challenges its readers to think through their own societal assumptions and explore both the consequences and alternatives of their own social realities.