-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Summary | Discuss | Reviews | More Information | Read-Alikes
One of the most powerful and most widely read novels of our time in display-worthy hardcover: A gripping vision of our society radically overturned by a theocratic revolution—from "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" (The New York Times)
In Margaret Atwood's dystopian future, environmental disasters and declining birthrates have led to a Second American Civil War. The result is the rise of the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian regime that enforces rigid social roles and enslaves the few remaining fertile women. Offred is one of these, a Handmaid bound to produce children for one of Gilead's commanders. Deprived of her husband, her child, her freedom, and even her own name, Offred clings to her memories and her will to survive.
Like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid's Tale has endured not only as a literary landmark but as a warning of a possible future that is still chillingly relevant.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (12/18/2025)
I loved the Time of the Child especially this time of year. Getting ready for the holidays has put me in a reading slump. I have currently tried reading Bel Canto by Ann Patchett but it's not a page turner for me. I enjoyed her novels Tom Lake and The Dutch House so it surprises me about this boo...
-Lynne_G
Have you read many of the books mentioned in the novel? Did you find titles you added to your “to be read” list?
Thank you for the list - I had no idea so many were mentioned. I have read several. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Lord of the Flies by Williams Golding Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Charl...
-Laura_S
The Forgotten Book Club Reading list
...Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey The Collected Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker The Bee Sting by Paul Murray Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion The Tempest by William Shakespeare...
-kim.kovacs
"The Handmaid's Tale deserves the highest praise." —San Francisco Chronicle
"Atwood takes many trends which exist today and stretches them to their logical and chilling conclusions.... An excellent novel about the directions our lives are taking.... Read it while it's still allowed." —Houston Chronicle
This information about The Handmaid's Tale was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her novels include Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and the MaddAddam trilogy. Her 1985 classic, The Handmaid's Tale, was followed in 2019 by a sequel, The Testaments, which was a global number one bestseller and won the Booker Prize. In 2020 she published Dearly, her first collection of poetry for a decade.
If you liked The Handmaid's Tale, try these:
The Woman They Could Not Silence
by Kate Moore
Published 2022
From the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Radium Girls comes another dark and dramatic but ultimately uplifting tale of a forgotten woman whose inspirational journey sparked lasting change for women's rights and exposed injustices that still resonate today.
by Anna Solomon
Published 2021
For fans of The Hours and Fates and Furies, a bold, kaleidoscopic novel intertwining the lives of three women across three centuries as their stories of sex, power, and desire finally converge in the present day.
by Marilynne Robinson
Published 2021
Marilynne Robinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, returns to the world of Gilead with Jack, the latest novel in one of the great works of contemporary American fiction.
L.A. Women by Ella Berman
Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
