The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.

Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of twenty-first century America gives full rein to Margaret Atwood's devastating irony, wit and astute perception.

A fantastic, chilling story. And so powerfully feminist
Compulsively readable * Daily Telegraph *
Out of a narrative shadowed by terror, gleam sharp perceptions, brilliant intense images and sardonic wit * Independent *
The Handmaid's Tale is both a superlative exercise in science fiction and a profoundly felt moral story
Moving, vivid and terrifying. I only hope it's not prophetic * The Listener *