The Handmaid’s Tale

In the Republic of Gilead, a theocracy built on the ruins of the United States, women may not read, own property or use their own names. Offred is a Handmaid, valued only for a womb that still works, and she remembers the ordinary life that was taken from her by degrees. Atwood insisted she invented nothing that had not already happened somewhere. Emma Watson chose it for Our Shared Shelf, warning that it is gripping but will not make you comfortable.