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.

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©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)

Confused

I had a really hard time with this one because I guess I missed how these people ended up where they were...it didn't get explained until the very end. It was very frustrating for me.

Finally at Audible

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Could this be where we are going?

Any additional comments?

Great to get some of the very best books of recent times to the Audible catalog.

Incredible

I was urged to read this 20 years ago but didn't think it would appeal. I was very much mistaken. I can now fully understand why this is on so many "must read" lists. Danes narration is superb and perfectly cast.

Absolutely OUTSTANDING

First- full disclosure: I'm a fan of the book. I'd read it just a few years after it came out when I was probably a freshman in high school; it made an indelible impression on me and I think Margaret Atwood is a flippin' GENIUS. I think it should be required reading for every human being in North America.

My daughter, in her mid-teens, loves audiobooks. She is a great reader as well; however, she will only very occasionally take a book recommendation from her mum. I got this audiobook in the hopes that she *might* listen to it if I put it on her iPod.

Claire Danes hasn't been a favorite of mine - it isn't that I *don't* like her.....I just missed "my So-Called Life" age wise & I can't recall seeing her in anything since "Romeo & Juliet" (I haven't watched much tv since 1997). I was skeptical if Ms. Danes could do this material (that's so important to me) justice, but I hoped my daughter would enjoy it.....

One evening I couldn't sleep & I had no more credits so I decided to give it a try - AMAZING. I hadn't re-read "The Handmaid's Tale" in 20+ years and listening to it again now was not only chilling but I was dumbfounded at Atwood's prescience (just check out Ms. magazines' recent articles about the War against Women). And Claire Danes? She inhabits this narrative, gives such a strong, nuanced performance that I cannot BELIEVE she didn't win the Audie for this. Danes reading Atwood is a golden example of how audiobooks can be so much better than reading a book yourself; great writing paired with great reading is sublime.

I still don't know if my daughter has listened to it - I pray that she does. HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION POSSIBLE

Loved it

If you could sum up The Handmaid's Tale in three words, what would they be?

I listened to this one several times. Claire Daines is a wonderful narrator.

Any additional comments?

Listen to it

eery

Makes one think, in lieu of how the world is becoming less educated, more resistant to scientific facts and pushing for religious Vinton of the rest of us. Would we allow this to happen by shear laziness like a thump on the head? Who would fight it? Good book to push one forward to think.

BORING‼️‼️

OMG‼️. I’m a retired English professor, and I found this book to be one of the worst books I have ever read or heard. There was no plot, no climax and no conclusion! I’m a woman who enjoys action and adventure. The most action here was in the brothel. Thank goodness for Claire Danes! At least she can perform well. I almost quit listening three or four times, but I kept thinking it would get better; it didn’t! The story is just a quirky twist on a tired subject - we poor women are always trod upon. Blah, blah, blah.

It’s time for me to go read some Connelly, Patterson or Hurwitz. Enough of this drivel!

horrifying and depressing in the current climate

great book that hits too close to home in the current social, religious and political climate

Better the Second Time

I read _The Handmaid's Tale_ years ago and loved it then. Reading it now, I saw it all in a brand new light. Looking forward to watching the series too.

Reader Makes it Boring

While many who review this audible book say it is boring, they mistakenly accuse the story itself. I find fault with the reader who speaks in a monotone much of the time, drops her volume and pitch at the end of every sentence and pauses as if every comma and period are sacred. Find a better reader and this book will be pleasurable and interesting to listen to. The diary nature can become tiresome but again, that could be due to the reader’s lack of vocal variety and inflection.