Margaret Atwood is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist and environmental activist. Even though she has published several poetry books she is best known for her 1985 novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.” It is a dystopian novel set in a near-future New England in a totalitarian theocracy which has overthrown the United States government. Winner of the 1985 Governor General’s Award, it was also nominated for the Nebula Award, the Booker Prize and the Prometheus Award. Previous adaptations include the cinema, television, radio, opera and stage. Now it has been adapted into a television series on Hulu and will premiere on Wednesday April 29, 2017. It stars Elizabeth Moss as Offred the Handmaid and Samira Wiley as Moira, Offred’s college friend.

According to Amazon, “The Handmaid’s Tale” is set in the near future and describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the Republic of Gilead. The government is now a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by going back to the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. Those in charge now make the rules according to the book of Genesis with bizarre consequences for its citizens. Environmental contamination had led to infertility so now young fertile women are assigned to the homes of the rich where they are supposed to have children for those men and their wives. It is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids, who remembers happier times when she was married with a daughter and her own name. Considered a satire, it can also be viewed as a dire warning.