Trump win boosted sales of dystopian classic "The Handmaid's Tale"
Margaret Atwood says Trump win boosted sales of her dystopian classic
Canada's best-known writer Margaret Atwood said it was largely worries about women's issues after the U.S. election that made her book
"The Handmaid's Tale" the latest dystopian novel to shoot back up bestseller lists.
"When it first came out it was viewed as being farfetched, the 77-year old grande dame of Canadian literature said of her novel that was originally published in 1985.
"However when I wrote it I was making sure I wasnt putting anything into it that human beings had not already done somewhere at sometime."
Plot summary:
"Beginning with a staged attack that kills the President and most of Congress, an extreme Christian movement calling itself the "Sons of Jacob" launches a revolution and suspends the United States Constitution under the pretext of restoring order.
They are quickly able to take away all of women's rights ...
The new regime, the Republic of Gilead, moves quickly to consolidate its power and reorganize society along a new militarized, hierarchical, compulsory regime of Old Testament-inspired social and religious fanaticism among its newly created social classes.
In this society, human rights are severely limited and women's rights are unrecognized ..."
(Edited to add link to article)