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VINTAGE QUARTERBOUND CLASSICS: Bound to be beautiful
A beautiful hardback edition of Atwood's classic dystopian novel.
Offred is a Handmaid in The Republic of Gilead, a religious totalitarian state in what was formerly known as the United States.
She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford - her assigned name, Offred, means 'of Fred'. She has only one function: to breed.
If Offred refuses to enter into sexual servitude to repopulate a devastated world, she will be hanged.
Yet even a repressive state cannot eradicate hope and desire. As she recalls her pre-revolution life in flashbacks, Offred must navigate through the terrifying landscape of torture and persecution in the present day, and between two men upon which her future hangs.
Masterfully conceived and executed, this haunting vision of the future places Margaret Atwood at the forefront of dystopian fiction.
Author: Margaret Atwood
Hardcover Published 16 July 2024 336 pages
Reviews:
"Compulsively readable" - Daily Telegraph
"Out of a narrative shadowed by terror, gleam sharp perceptions, brilliant intense images and sardonic wit." - Peter Kemp, Independent
"The images of brilliant emptiness are one of the most striking aspects of this novel about totalitarian blindness...the effect is chilling."" - Linda Taylor, Sunday Times
"It's hard to believe it is 25 years since it was first published, but its freshness, its anger and its disciplined, taut prose have grown more admirable in the intervening years... Atwood's novel was an ingenious enterprise that showed, with out hysteria, the real dangers to women of closing their eyes to patriarchal.'' - Lesley McDowell, Independent on Sunday
Turned 25 this year and...worth re-reading. As you grow, such books grow with you
Erica Wagner, The Times, Christmas round up
Fiercely political and bleak, yet witting and wise...this novel seems ever more vital in the present day
Observer