Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now . . .
Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.
I’ve heard so much, read good reviews about this book. And the very idea of the book turned out to be interesting and new to me.
And it was interesting to read that it’s like a blog, really like a narrative (the name didn’t lie 🙈).
Sure, the book is cruel, about a really cruel future for women, but I could have expected that after reading the annotation.
But something was missing for me, I couldn’t give five stars, I already gave four with hesitation, or three or four lacked that “hook” that I didn’t want to pull away from the book because I closed it with my easy hand and left it for the next day, so it read slowly to me.
But from three stars to four saved the end, how interesting to me this author’s choice turned out to be at the end of the book! Something new (well or at least not yet read to me) 🙈
Publishing house: Baltos Lankos
Literary Awards: Booker Prize Nominee (1986), Nebula Award Nominee for Best Novel (1986), Locus Award Nominee for Best SF Novel (1987), Arthur C. Clarke Award (1987), Audie Award for Fiction (2013)Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (1986), Prometheus Award Nominee for Best Novel (1987), James Tiptree Jr. Award Nominee for Retrospective (1995), Governor General's Literary Awards / Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général for Fiction (1985), SF Chronicle Award Nominee for Novel (1987), Commonwealth Writers' Prize Nominee for Best Book in Caribbean and Canada (1987), CBC Canada Reads Nominee (2002), Metų verstinė knyga Nominee (2012)