Out of a narrative shadowed by terror, gleam sharp perceptions, brilliant intense images and sardonic wit' Independent

The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one option: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like all 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. The Handmaid's Tale is a brilliant and astutely perceived evocation of twenty-first-century America.