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)

Very good book

I enjoyed Claire Danes as the reader! The story is very plausible as no one knows the future. But it does hit on some major points. For example, when the collapse of the government occurs the writer says they will "blame it on Islamic radicals." Just as they have been since this book was written 30 years ago.

Excellent narration

I don't usually listen to audiobooks like this since I enjoy more of escapism-type stories. However, Claire Danes performed this so well that I was drawn to the story all the way to the end. I borrowed both the ebook and audiobook from Kindle Unlimited. I found myself going back and reading certain passages because it was that good.

A fantastic book with a fantastic narrator

Claire Danes does incredible justice to this work. Probably one of the best I've ever heard. She has an engrossing, accessible reading voice that really brings the story to life.

The book itself left me in that daze that all good novels do, where you can't parse out your feelings, but you know you've experienced something profound - ESPECIALLY topical in our current political situation.

Great

A little hard to read at times it's bleak, but it's well written and intelligent a classic

Excellent story and Claire Danes was great!

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

Thought-provoking dystopia.

Any additional comments?

Atwood's book is an excellent examination of a society based on religious fundamentalism. Claire Dane provided an excellent reading of the book - out of the hundreds of audio-books to which I have listened, this is the best performance by a reader that I have ever heard.

Rivoting

Where does The Handmaid's Tale rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I only do audiobooks when I have a long car ride, this time from Alabama to New Hampshire. This book did it's job, kept me engrossed in the story, the narration was great (although I did think about the tv show homeland from time to time due to the narrator). I liked it enough to order the dvd so I could see the movie!

Who was your favorite character and why?

The narrator, of course.

Which scene was your favorite?

I liked the scene where she first met Nick for a tryst...it showed her tenacity for freedom

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Kinda scary when you listen to the ending where they are reviewing this as a time past...what we are doing now and how they say it lead to this

Exceptional!

I loved the story and the narrator, this book was gripping, thought provoking, and entertaining. Highly recommend it!!

Darkly Insightful into a Grim Future

A bit depressing overall but still a fascinating world crafted and played out for you a little piece at a time.

Thought provoking

I liked the book overall despite the author's tendency towards long winded descriptive narrative. The narrator was chosen well for this book and helped to keep the book interesting through the previously mentioned descriptive sections. I would bet much recommend this book to any socially conscious reader.

Captivating and not just a little frightening

This story, though written more than 30 years ago, is a cautionary tale for today's American society.