The handmaid's tale
(Kit)

Twelve copies of this title are in a book club kit for checkout.

"With a new introduction by the author"--Cover.

Originally published: London : Cape, 1986. With new introduction, bibliography, and chronology.

Includes bibliographical references.

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures because women are not allowed to read. She must pray for the Commander to make her pregnant, for in a time of declining birthrates her value lies in her fertility, and failure means exile to the dangerously polluted Colonies. Offred can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Now she navigates the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules.