NPR

'Handmaid's Tale' Wants You To Feel Like 'This Could Happen Here'

Elisabeth Moss and Samira Wiley star in Hulu's TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood's 1985 dystopian novel — in which fertile women become reproductive surrogates for powerful men and their barren wives.
The few fertile women remaining in the oppressive Republic of Gilead must serve as reproductive surrogates for powerful leaders in the TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood's 1985 dystopian novel, <em>The Handmaid's Tale.</em>

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is one of a handful of dystopian novels that have seen a boost in sales since the 2016 election. The book tells the story of what happens when a theocratic dictatorship takes over the government and gets rid of women's rights.

In 2016, Atwood that the idea started as a question: "If you want women to go back into the home, how do you make them do that? And the method I proposed in 1985 was, now that we

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR2 min read
Gaza Solidarity Protests Sweep U.S. Colleges; SCOTUS Tackles Starbucks Union Case
Tensions are high as campus protests over the war in Gaza stretch across the U.S. The Supreme Court will hear a case about pro-union Starbucks employees.
NPR7 min readWorld
Pro-Palestinian Encampments And Protests Spread On College Campuses Across The U.S.
After dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested at Columbia, Yale and NYU, students at colleges from Massachusetts to Minnesota to California are erecting encampments in solidarity.
NPR6 min read
A Hunk Of Space Junk Crashed Through A Florida Man's Roof. Who Should Pay To Fix It?
"It was not like anything I had ever seen before," Alejandro Otero says. It turned out his home was hit by debris from the International Space Station that had been circling the Earth for three years.

Related Books & Audiobooks