The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, first published in 1985 by McClelland and Stewart. Set in the near-future Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian theonomy that has replaced the United States, the story follows Offred, a woman forced into the role of a Handmaid—a fertile woman assigned to bear children for the ruling elite. The novel explores themes of female subjugation, loss of identity, and the weaponization of religion and reproductive rights.
The novel was inspired by historical events and regimes that controlled women's bodies, and Atwood has stated that every atrocity depicted in the book has a real-world precedent. It won the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction in 1985 and the first Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The book became a modern classic, frequently taught in schools and universities, and has remained a touchstone in discussions of feminism and authoritarianism.
A sequel novel, The Testaments, was published in 2019 and won the Booker Prize, continuing the story fifteen years after the events of the original novel.
