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  

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