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)

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.

So SO good

This is such a great story. I've now read the book a couple of times, listened to the book, seen the older movie, and have watched the series through a couple of times. Atwood is, in my opinion, at her best here. The story is engaging, interesting and perhaps most of all, thought provoking. I've also read the follow-up book The Testaments, which is a wonderful addition to the story. The narration by Claire Danes was really great as well. All too often, I'm left feeling flat by narration, but this was a great listen. 10/10

Awesome Book

A little different than the show but the difference aren’t that big and do not subtract anything from the actual story. The narrator they chose for this book was excellent and did a great job reading this book. I will be reading the follow up book The Testament very soon. The only thing I disliked about the book was how the author ended it so quickly I feel like she should of given us a chance to see what else was going to happen but maybe that is covered in the next book.

Stunning

Claire Danes was absolutely amazing as narrator!!! This story is depressing. The future that Christian nationalists want.

Best Narrator I’ve ever listened to!

Wow! The narration in this is top notch! And I’ve listened to hundreds of audio books. I devoured all 11hrs in 3 days. I’ve never seen the tv series and glad I listened to the book first. I’d love to know what happened to “of Fred” in a sequel. I really enjoyed this.

Claire Danes is everything

An incredible book by Margaret Atwood and a spectacular performance by Claire Danes! Thoroughly enjoyed

Relevant

If one faction of government in the United States has their way, American women will be living this story. So much of what Margaret Atwood imagined many years ago seems only a hair’s breadth away from becoming fact rather than fiction. I loved every minute of this audio book. The only problem was it ended too soon. The narrator was exceptional.

Just Ok… Wish Story was More Compelling

Wish there was more to take away from this book. I read 150+ books a year, and was very excited to give this one a listen. Narration great, but kept waiting for the big lesson, or big shift in the story. So much potential and interesting subject matter, but then just dies down. Ending is a real disappointment.

Cautionary Tale

I have already seen the show on Hulu, so I came into this with a bit of knowledge of the story already, but I was pleasantly surprised how close the first season was to the book.

And, man, was this a great book! The way Offred's mind would keep slipping away to better times (even though they weren't perfect) was expertly done. The story weaves a reality into being that is scarily, eerily, steps away from actually occurring especially considering recent events. It's depressing to think about, but hopefully this story is a cautionary tale.

That aside, still a great book and I will be diving right into The Testaments.