The Handmaid's Tale

By: Margaret Atwood

Narrated by: Claire Danes

Length: 11 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Audie Award, Fiction, 2013

Margaret Atwood's popular dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale explores a broad range of issues relating to power, gender, and religious politics. Multiple Golden Globe award-winner Claire Danes (Romeo and Juliet, The Hours) gives a stirring performance of this classic in speculative fiction, one of the most powerful and widely read novels of our time.

After a staged terrorist attack kills the President and most of Congress, the government is deposed and taken over by the oppressive and all-controlling Republic of Gilead. Offred, now a Handmaid serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife, can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Despite the danger, Offred learns to navigate the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules in hopes of ending this oppression.

Cover Art by Fred Marcellino. Used with permission of Pippin Properties, Inc.

Explore more titles performed by some of the most celebrated actors in the business in Audible’s Star-Powered Listens collection.

©1985 Margaret Atwood (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Claire Danes sparkles in this performance…Danes’s Offred is complex, and her flashes of intense strength highlight her vulnerability. This is a consuming listen, thanks to Danes’s emotional subtleties.” (AudioFile)

Worth reading

Good story but found it to be very wordy and dragged on in some areas and not enough info in other areas. Interesting conclusion keeps one guessing.

A world no woman would want to live in

This story makes you cringe at times. The strong female lead is well developed and pirated by Claire Danes. A great listen. #hardbeingawoman #cliffhanger #newwayoflife #tagsgiving #sweapstakes

Great performance by Claire Danes

I really enjoyed Claire Danes' narration. I also had a paper copy but mostly chose to listen instead of reading. It's a captivating and disturbing tale. Margaret Atwood is a master of building a dystopian world from real historical bricks.

Pretty boring the end

The lore and the concept invokes a valuable message but the main character is hard to follow and isn’t very intriguing/interesting.

Got tired of narrator’s voice

Great book but I got tired of the narrator’s pitch after hour five; nothing wrong just probably not my cup of tea

Chilling at this time in the U.S.

The story is much more chilling now in our political climate than the first time I read it almost a decade ago, especially the last chapter.

I just wish there was more!

So many questions left unanswered but what a great story it really makes me think what it must be like to be people living through regime changes or revolutions. To remember who last year was completely normal then the next completely different. It reminds me of Syria

Could not stop listening

Great story and well performed. Absolutely recommend. Now o understand what all the hype is about.

Distopian story of a plausible new regime

distopian story of a plausible dictatorial regime in the near future and the role of slaved women in the society

1984, with more nuance

When I read 1984, I felt it was missing something, but couldn’t put my finger on it. The Handmaid’s Tale showed me what that was - a clearly articulated reason and a history of how the regime came to be. The characters in this novel also strike me as more human, with well-articulated personal biases and inner lives, and more complex relationships.