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The Handmaid's Tale
- Narrated by: Claire Danes
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
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The Handmaid's Tale
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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.
What the critics say
Featured Article: 20 Best Sci-Fi Audiobooks for Exploring New Worlds
There is no genre that lends itself better to audio narrative than Science Fiction does. There is a magic that transports listeners to new worlds of wonder and mystery that is heightened by expert voice actors and narrators. A great writer can create an imaginative new world or dystopian civilisation, but it is up to the narrator to bring this world to life around you. We’ve gathered together 20 of the top science fiction audiobooks ranked not only for their stories but for the emotive and compelling narrative performances. Let these award winning tales and voices carry you away to worlds unknown.
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What listeners say about The Handmaid's Tale
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MCK
- 2019-11-16
Compelling story and perfect narration!
I could not have loved this more. Powerhouse combo of Atwood’s prose and Danes’ performance.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Claire
- 2018-09-19
A true classic
Amazing, thoughtful, deep, and very profound. This is obviously a classic. Inspiration for a generation of women. #audible1
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Franciska Sephton
- 2019-09-16
Information parceled out gently&perfectly timed...
The telling of the story was just right. Pieces coming together to form a vision. It felt like I was slowly being boiled alive as the reality of the world at that moment was revealed bit by bit. Genius.
I listened at 1.15x and it was the perfect speed for me. Claire Danes has a lovely voice and it was definitely helpful in bringing the story to life as well as listening for long periods.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- hussam
- 2018-03-13
Classic! highly recommend
Classic book! I highly recommend it. Love the writing style and performance, it takes a while to get started but it gets really good after the first couple of chapters.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sahand Pashazadeh
- 2020-02-24
One of the best books
Such a phenomenal book that I think anyone of voting age needs to read. So much of it can be seen in our current global political landscape.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kathleen McBurnie
- 2019-12-08
Better listened to than read.
I have always heard everyone say that it is not an easy hook to read due to the lack of punctuation. Atwood saved this in the Historical Notes, I think, explaining that it is a tape, rather than a diary. Claire Danes narrates it expertly, keeping it easy to follow and setting the tone perfectly. If it wasn’t for the lady chapter this would have gotten a 3 star in story since I found it dragged and I reached a point where I really just wanted it to be over. But the concept is terrifying and catching. Definitely worth a read- or listen to.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mauro
- 2019-09-24
A thrilling dystopia!
The best dystopian novels are those that in a way describe our own societies and show to which extent and how fast things can change for the worse. Atwood's description of thoughts, feelings, and the overall psychological state of her characters makes for a very interesting read. Danes' narration adapts Atwood's style almost perfectly to the audiobook format. Thrilling!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2017-12-05
Boring and drawn out.
Narrator was good, book was trash. never been so bored. Nothing even happens in the 11 hour audio book. Waste of everyone's time. Buy it if you like hearing an insufferable main character pompously and pretentiously describe her environment in agonizing detail. Who cares? Margaret atwood spends more time explaining what a tulip symbolizes to our main character than actually creating a story where things happen. Because, nothing. even. happens.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Esther
- 2023-02-26
Great read.
Reading by Clair Danes made this story all the better. I was hooked and want to listen to more of Clair and read more Atwood.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Helen Loewen
- 2023-02-13
One of my favourite books ever!
Quite eerie are the similarities of the time in which this was written to our own 37 years later. Absolutely profound, fascinating, and prophetic.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jeff de la Tours
- 2017-05-26
Wow
Any additional comments?
This is just an incredible book. Atwood's metaphors, allusions and insights are all top notch. A true masterwork of writing. Any student of literature should have this on their list of great books. As for the audiobook version I thought Claire Danes did a fantastic job reading this with emphasis and soul. She really added an extra emotional component to the reading that other non-actors might not have been able to bring.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alison G.
- 2023-10-11
Excellent writing, excellent performance
Margaret Atwood at her best: keenly intelligent, perceptive, funny. Her love of words, combined with Claire Danes’ pitch-perfect reading make for an especially satisfying listen.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2017-11-30
Couldn't even finish this book
I never start a book and give up on it but I just could not finish this book. I really don't understand what all the fuss is about.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Deleon Lindsay
- 2017-09-08
it's alright
needed more about what was going on in the world while this was going on
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- adrienne
- 2017-07-20
Claire did a fabulous job!
I want to say that I loved the book. I want to say that I couldn't put it down. I want to say that this is going to go down as one of the best books I've ever read. Unfortunately, I felt in a way that the book was lacking some information and some key points to the story that would have gripped me a little more. I'm used to reading novels that leave you at the end wanting more, wanting answers, wanting something defined, but I felt like this book was missing chapters missing pages missing paragraphs. Somewhere there had to be something more but not in a way that most books leave you, ...
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Craig
- 2017-07-10
Great book...
Any additional comments?
Claire Danes is a brilliant actor, and I've read this book years ago but with her as the story teller I was inclined to listen to it again. To be honest, I was a little disappointed by Claire Danes as the performer of the book. It took a good two or three chapters to wrap my head around her delivery of the text, but the text is so strong that whatever it was about Claire's performance was overshadowed by the story itself. I mean, she wasn't bad, but I guess I just expected so much more because when you see her on the screen as an actor she's really, really good. Really good. If it was anyone else putting in this performance it would be good, but because you expect so much more from Claire Danes the performance is just alright.
Strangely, I don't remember the book being written first person, present tense the first time I read it, but there it is, told in the first person/present tense, exactly how everyone tells you NOT to write. Again, it was distracting for a while, but once you got into the story you didn't notice so much.
I've read a few of Atwood's books, and they aren't necessarily my favourite, but post-apocalyptic stories are strangely fascinating to me and this story is well wrought and disturbing because it feels like it could happen, that we are laying the groundwork for it to happen if we aren't careful.
Anyway, A Handmaid's Tale is a great story and worth listening to, and Claire Danes is good but not brilliant by her standards, but good enough. Give it a go, you'll enjoy the story or come away scared by how possible it all is.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lynn
- 2017-05-15
A Masterful Work of Fiction
Poetically written and masterfully done. And Clare Danes was the perfect narrator. As many others are saying, this is a timely book.
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