This image released by Nan A. Talese shows the cover of Margaret Atwood’s "The Testaments." (Nan A. Talese via AP)
The Handmaid’s Tale was published in 1985 and is well settled alongside 1984, The Origins of Totalitarianism and others in the canon of books warning us how bad “bad” can be. In the Republic of Gilead, formed in what was Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the wake of a radical coup, women are confined within a strict caste system that determines how they dress, how they are named (some for the men they serve) and with whom they may bear children. They are forbidden to vote, have jobs, or read or write.