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 Scary Possibility

We think our democracy is so strong that nothing like this could ever happen in the United States, but the events of January 6th, 2021, are much too similar to what happened in this book. Very scary.

I absolutely enjoyed Clair Diane's reading of this book. She made me feel as if I was there with her.

reality of the future

very good depiction of what we can expect in the very near future. I would recommend reading.

The Handmaid’s

I love that the book and the Series kept the same character descriptions and names. It made it so much easier to follow the story line while having a picture in my mind of the actors. It’s an unbelievable piece of literary works by Margaret Atwood. I think what is even more mind blowing is the possibility it could become an actual reality. For GOD’S SAKE….Men are already telling us women in the United States what we CAN and CANNOT do with our own bodies!!!
This book is a very chilling reminder for all men and women to heed this warning!

I’m glad I read this…

I’d like to state that this isn’t my usual book… I’m typically not a fan of female readers and am somewhat reluctant to read female authors, so this book review is worth more than a perfunctory star review. The narration is perfect and Claire does the book it’s due. The story affected me on a way that only one other book comes to mind, strangely Stephen King’s Christine. Both books simply made me angry. Not in the way that you feel about a poorly written book, just the opposite! The author wrote the story in a way that brings anger out of the reader; granted both books are on very different and nearly incomparable spectrum, but the emotion was real and palpable in both. There are some terrifying notions in this book, that in many ways seem prescient snd foreboding in our current climate. I’ve not seen the television series and I don’t know that I will, but I will certainly continue reading this series and have found a new author that I am excited to delve further into as well.

Great listen

Really enjoyed this, it was hard to turn it off. Loved Claire Danes narration, she is amazing 👏

All to close to home in these troubling times.

This was very hard to listen to. With such intensely regressive developments, as of late, with regard to women's rights to their own bodies, intense political divide, a president attempting a government overturn, now under trial, and actual talk and promotion of a possible theocracy, I only hope these travesties remain fiction.

Good, But Short Story

I chose to listen to this book after having seen the television series by the same name. I had hoped there would be more details similar to the ones displayed on-screen, but alas, the story was considerably shorter than I expected.

The narrator was great and made the effort to distinguish the voices of the characters. I would definitely look forward to hearing another book read by her.

The story, despite being short, feels more like a memoir. It's nice to see things from Offred's point of view, but I felt like the story was cut off too soon at the end. This is probably a disappointment of my own making, having experienced the show before the book. The historical notes at the end are interesting from an "outside of Gilead" perspective, but the time period is unclear. It seems to be after the possible "fall" of Gilead.

Overall, this is an interesting story, but it pales in comparison to the television series solely because the show has a more detailed storyline compared to the book.

very compelling story, well read

the reader sounds like the actual heroine of story, brilliant performance.

the story itself is very relevant today and has aged well. A new "1984".

Another dystopian society

An interesting story of a dystopian society where men ruled and women were assigned duties based on whether they were fertile or not. Claire Danes did a good job of narrating after a bumpy first chapter.

Woah

Atwood frightens like few can. Beautiful writing, harrowing story, especially in terms of the rise of religious right and evangelical fanaticism in the 80’s - drawing inspiration from that and characters like Phyllis schlafly. Good book, not good bedtime material though.