The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel[2] by Canadian author Margaret Atwood,[3][4] originally published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England, in a totalitarian, Christian theonomy that has overthrown the United States government.[5] The novel focuses on the journey of the handmaid Offred. Her name derives from the possessive form "of Fred"; handmaids are forbidden to use their birth names and must echo the male, or master, whom they serve.