This narrative strand of The Handmaid’s Tale shows the influence of Atwood’s extensive knowledge Its values around the world ( see also Manifest Destiny). It is in part a response to the New England Puritan view of America as an Elect nation - a country that is believed to have a singularly close relationship to God and a duty to spread The Handmaid's Tale is set in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was awarded the Booker Prize in a rare tie withīernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other.Ī public art piece inspired by Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, designed by Paula Scher and Abbott Miller, at New York's High Line park in April 2017. The Testaments, a highly anticipated sequel written by Atwood, was published in September 2019. The Washington Post’s Ron Charles called it “the most popular and influential feminist novel ever written.” It has been adapted into a featureįilm, an acclaimed opera, a ballet, an Emmy Award-winning television series and a graphic novel. It has sold more than eight million copies in English. Clarke Award for Science Fiction Literature.

The novel won the Governor General's Literary Award and the ArthurĬ. State that oppresses women and regulates all aspects of human life with constant surveillance. The Handmaid's Tale portrays a loveless police It is set in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarianĪmerica in which fundamentalist Christians have killed the president and Congress and imposed a puritanical theocracy. Margaret Atwood’s sixth novel, The Handmaid's Tale (1985) is a chilling dystopian vision of the future.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood