** THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER ****A BBC BETWEEN COVERS BIG JUBILEE READ**Go back to where it all began with the dystopian novel behind the award-winning TV series. ‘As relevant today as it was when Atwood wrote it’ GuardianI believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no light without shadow; or rather, no shadow unless there is also light. Offred is a Handmaid in The Republic of Gilead, a religious totalitarian state in what was formerly known as the United States. She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford – her assigned name, Offred, means ‘of Fred’. She has only one function: to breed. If Offred refuses to enter into sexual servitude to repopulate a devastated world, she will be hanged. Yet even a repressive state cannot eradicate hope and desire. As she recalls her pre-revolution life in flashbacks, Offred must navigate through the terrifying landscape of torture and persecution in the present day, and betw