Margaret Atwood’s name resurfaces whenever governments tighten their grip, freedoms are curtailed or science ventures a little too far. These five novels, including The Handmaid’s Tale, reveal how the author turned our own era into her ultimate field of exploration.
Since women began protesting outside parliaments dressed in red robes and white bonnets, Margaret Atwood’s name has echoed far beyond Canada as a warning signal. Yet reducing her work to The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) would miss half the picture. These novels show how she observes, dismantles and reimagines systems of power.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)
In the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian theocracy where fertile women are reduced to controlled vessels, Margaret Atwood does not depict a distant future, but a collage of horrors already witnessed throughout history. Through Offred, a handmaid assigned to a Commander, the novel reveals how a society can slide quietly into barbarism. Every coded detail becomes proof of the efficiency of social control.
Its television adaptation, a global phenomenon, has given this deeply political nightmare a second life with a much wider audience.
Alias Grace (1996)
Inspired by a true story, this novel centres on Grace Marks, a young Irish maid convicted of a double murder in 1843 Canada.
A doctor studying her case hopes to determine whether she is a criminal or a victim, gathering a narrative that shifts between clarity and memory gaps. The question becomes less whether Grace is lying than who constructs the “official” version of events. Atwood dissects how justice, the media and society project their fantasies onto a woman deemed disturbing.
Cat’s Eye (1988)
Renowned painter Elaine Risley returns to Toronto for a retrospective and finds herself drawn back into childhood memories marked by a circle of cruel girls. Beneath the surface of a coming-of-age story, Cat’s Eye explores the psychological violence between adolescents—those small humiliations that leave lasting scars.
Years later, in Book of Lives, Atwood revisits this autobiographical material in the first person, as though reflecting the novel against the life that inspired it.
Oryx and Crake (2003)
In the first instalment of a speculative trilogy, a survivor named Snowman wanders through a devastated world alongside genetically engineered beings meant to replace humanity. As the story moves backwards, we discover the rise of Crake, a childhood friend convinced he can “fix” humanity through genetic design.
The catastrophe emerges as the logical outcome of unchecked power in the hands of biotechnology.
The Testaments (2019)
Several years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the Republic of Gilead begins to crack from within. Three narrators—including the formidable Aunt Lydia—offer different perspectives on the system’s corruption and the betrayals required to bring it down.
Meanwhile, its screen adaptation, currently streaming on Disney+, extends the world of Gilead and reinforces the novel as a strikingly contemporary warning.
Margaret Atwood: a voice for the 21st century
Born in 1939 in Ottawa and raised between forests and academic libraries, Margaret Atwood has long combined scientific observation with narrative power. Poet, novelist and essayist, she has explored since the 1960s themes of domination, fragile ecosystems and the stories societies tell themselves for reassurance.
Awarded major literary prizes, including the Booker Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, her work increasingly resonates with today’s world.
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