In this special bonus episode of Dua’s Monthly Read for November, we sit down with acclaimed actor Elisabeth Moss, who brings June Osborne – better known as Offred – to life in the Emmy-winning television adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. 

Elisabeth opens up about the first time she read Margaret Atwood’s iconic novel, what it was like meeting the author herself, and how both moments shaped her portrayal of one of contemporary fiction’s most iconic heroines. 

She also delves into the evolution of the handmaid’s costumes and how designer Ane Crabtree helped transform Margaret’s vision into one of the most powerful visual symbols of our time, representing resistance, power, and solidarity – both on and off the screen. 

Finally, she shares her thoughts on the enduring cultural impact of the novel and why Margaret’s story continues to resonate so strongly in today’s world. 

Buy The Handmaid’s Tale at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble   

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Dua sits down with literary icon Margaret Atwood to discuss The Handmaid’s Tale – Dua’s Monthly Read for November – alongside Margaret’s new memoir, Book Of Lives. In her deeply personal book, Margaret revisits the people, places, and ideas that have shaped her writing, offering a rare glimpse into the imagination behind her most enduring creations.  

In a Service95 exclusive, Margaret reads a passage from Book Of Lives, which recounts how she arrived at the name Offred – the protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s an illuminating moment from Book Of Lives, revealing how language, history, and power intertwine in Margaret’s world.  

Buy The Handmaid’s Tale at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble   
 
Buy Book Of Lives at Bookshop.org, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble 

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This month, Dua sits down with literary icon Margaret Atwood to discuss her groundbreaking novel The Handmaid’s Tale – a dystopian classic that continues to resonate decades after its 1985 publication. Set in a totalitarian society where women are stripped of their rights and forced into reproductive servitude, the novel explores themes of power, control, and resistance through the eyes of its protagonist, Offred. 

Margaret reflects on how her experiences in Cold War-era East Berlin, the rise of the religious right, her reading of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and her studies of the Salem witch trials all helped shape the world of Gilead. Dua and Margaret also delve into the significance behind Offred’s name and its deeper meaning. 

As the political landscape continues to shift, Margaret resists making definitive predictions about the future. “You can’t know your legacy,” she says, “because you don’t know how the context is going to change.” 

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble  

Get in touch:   

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And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Welcome to the Service95 Book Club with Dua Lipa, a podcast dedicated to the books that stay with us – and the brilliant minds behind them. 

As well as bringing you a brand-new episode every month, we’ll also be dipping into the archive of fascinating conversations Dua has had with authors over the past two years. 

This time from the archive, Dua sits down with award-winning journalist and author Patrick Radden Keefe to discuss Say Nothing – the gripping true-crime narrative and Dua’s Monthly Read for June 2024. Centred around the disappearance of Jean McConville during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the book explores the murky intersection of politics, violence, and silence. 

Together, Dua and Patrick unpack how the mystery of McConville’s disappearance became the catalyst for the book, the chilling moment he uncovered the identity of her killer – who was already featured in the story – and whether true peace can ever exist without justice.  

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble 

 
 
Get in touch: 

📩 Email us – [email protected] 

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And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

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In this special episode, we sit down with award-winning author David Szalay, whose novel Flesh is Dua's Monthly Readfor October.

From the influence of his Hungarian roots to the spark that ignites his book ideas, David answers readers’ questions about the emotional, cultural, and intellectual threads that weave through his work.

If you’ve been moved, challenged, or intrigued by Flesh, this episode is a must-listen.

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble 

Get in touch:

📩 Email us – [email protected]

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And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

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This month on the Service95 Book Club podcast, Dua is joined by award-winning author David Szalay to discuss his quietly powerful novel Flesh – selected as Dua’s Monthly Read for October. Told through a series of spare, intimate portraits, the novel captures moments of human vulnerability with a precision that feels deeply real. 

In a Service95 exclusive, David reads from a chapter set in Iraq, where the protagonist István and his fellow soldiers find themselves beside a hotel pool, suspended in the strange stillness of their return from war. There is no drama, no action – just silence, heat, and waiting. 

“The idea of the soldiers having this very boring journey back from Iraq at the end of their tour of duty there… the boring texture of returning… that seemed to me to unlock the strong flavour of reality,” David tells Dua in their conversation, recorded live at the New York Public Library, which is also available as a podcast here. 

It’s a powerful moment in Flesh, and a testament to the realism that threads through the entire novel. 
 

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble  

Get in touch: 

📩 Email us – [email protected] 

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This month’s Service95 Book Club episode comes to you live from the New York Public Library, in partnership with Spotify, recorded in September in front of an audience. Dua is joined by Booker-shortlisted writer David Szalay to discuss his astonishing new novel Flesh - a brilliantly spare and unsettling portrait of a man caught between desire, social classes, and fate. 

The story follows István from a bleak Hungarian housing estate to the upper echelons of London society. But David resists the hero’s arc: István is passive, pliable, often silent – a man seemingly buffeted by events rather than steering them. His life unfolds through abrupt leaps in time, leaving the reader to piece together the shadows between. 

In their conversation, Dua and David explore why he chose such pared-back prose, to what extent István exemplifies ‘a primative form of masculinity’, and how money, class, and power warp even our most intimate relationships. They touch on the book’s unresolved tensions, from István’s relationships with women and his stepson, to the existential loneliness that haunts every page. 

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble  

Get in touch: 

📩 Email us – [email protected] 

📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates 

📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter – introduced each month by Dua – at www.service95.com 

And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Welcome to the Service95 Book Club with Dua Lipa, a podcast dedicated to the books that stay with us – and the brilliant minds behind them.

As well as bringing you a brand-new episode every month, we’ll also be dipping into the archive of fascinating conversations Dua has had with authors over the past two years.

This time from the archive, Dua sits down with Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk to discuss her darkly humorous and deeply philosophical novel Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead – Dua's Monthly Read for January 2025. The story follows an eccentric woman in a remote Polish village as she investigates a string of mysterious deaths, raising urgent questions about justice, nature, and the unseen forces that govern our lives.

In this episode, Dua and Olga dive into the ethical dimensions of animal rights, astrology as a form of artistic expression, and the lasting influence of William Blake.

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, Fitzcarraldo Editions and Penguin Random House
Get in touch:

📩 Email us – [email protected]

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This month on the Service95 Book Club podcast, Dua is joined by acclaimed American author Percival Everett to discuss his genre-defying, fiercely satirical novel The Trees – selected as Dua’s Monthly Read for September. A Booker Prize finalist, the book investigates the legacy of racial violence in America through a story that is as chilling as it is darkly comic.

In a Service95 exclusive, Percival reads from the novel’s searing Chapter 64 – a passage that echoes with names of those brutally murdered by lynch mobs. Some are remembered. Some are listed only as “unknown male” or “unknown female”. One by one, line by line, Everett delivers a roll call of history’s brutality – transforming a single character’s obsession into a profound act of remembrance.

His reading underscores the novel’s emotional and political power, revealing how The Trees blends mystery, satire, and mourning into a story that cannot be ignored.

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble 

Get in touch:   

📩 Email us – [email protected]   

📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates   

📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter – introduced each month by Dua – at www.service95.com   

And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

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This month, Dua is joined by one of the most singular voices in American fiction – the acclaimed author Percival Everett whose novel The Trees was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize. It’s not an understatement to say that Percival is having a moment – his most recent novel James won the 2024 National Book Award and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize, while American Fiction, the film adaptation of his novel Erasure, won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2024.

On the surface, The Trees is a murder mystery. But scratch deeper and it becomes a furious, funny, and fearless interrogation of racism, lynching, and America’s unfinished reckoning with its own past. Taking inspiration from the real-life story of Emmett Till, Percival uses dark comedy and genre subversion to create something bold and unforgettable.

Trigger Warning: Contains discussion of racial violence.

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble 

Get in touch:  

📩 Email us – [email protected]  

📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates  

📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter – introduced each month by Dua – at www.service95.com  

And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

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