The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offreds nor that of the two men on which her future hangs. Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of twenty first century America gives full rein to Margaret Atwoods devastating irony, wit and astute perception.