Immerse Yourself in 10 Unique Books by Margaret Atwood

My first exposure to Margaret Atwood, I’m somewhat ashamed to say, was not from reading one of her fantastic books but from watching the first season of The Handmaid’s Tale. The year was 2017, Donald Trump had just come to power in the United States, and the dark drama seemed eerily prescient, a warning, or perhaps a prophecy, of what could happen if a slight conflagration of events were to line up just right.

It’s shocking to think that Atwood wrote the novel the show is based on all the way back in 1985. The series just completed its fifth season and has proceeded past its source material, continuing the tragic and bleak story of June, Moira, Luke, Serena Joy, and the authoritative theocracy of Gilead. Atwood published a sequel in 2019, The Testaments, which takes place 15 years after the events of the original novel. The show has incorporated certain plotlines from the follow-up, although most of the story line from seasons 2 through 5 is original material.

Margaret Atwood’s bibliography is diverse—she’s written not only adult fiction but children’s books, poetry, academic works, and even TV jingles. The author is from Canada, and her homeland is the setting for much of her work.

Most of her stories are told from the perspective of female protagonists, and she likes to play with retellings of mythology, fables, and classic literature like Shakespeare. The narration is frequently deeply internal, pulling the reader into the mind of the central characters and blurring the line between thought and dialogue.

There’s really no bad place to start for a new reader dipping their toe into Atwood’s works. TV fans might like to begin with The Handmaid’s Tale, which is as good a place as any. What follows is a list of 10 of Atwood’s novels, perfect for readers new to her or who want to immerse themselves in the Canadian author’s unique themes of feminism, speculative fiction, and fresh takes on the classics.