Handmaid's Tale
By Margaret Atwood

Respected Canadian poet and novelist Atwood presents here a fable of the near future. In the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, far-right ideals have been carried to extremes in the monotheocratic government. The resulting society is a feminist's nightmare: women are strictly controlled, unable to have jobs or money and assigned to various classes: the chaste, childless Wives; the housekeeping Marthas; and the reproductive Handmaids, who turn their offspring over to the "morally fit" Wives. The tale is told by Offred ("of Fred"), a Handmaid who recalls the past and tells how the chilling society came to be.

The Handmaid's Tale is a horrifying story of a government fully in control of each person's life and totally out of control. The Handmaid's Tale is the perfect book for book clubs as it will evoke numerous discussions on feminism, nuclear war, radical government policies, slavery, etc. We all thoroughly enjoyed it and it indeed led to some very interesting discussions and insights.