First George Orwell’s 1984, now Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
The Canadian author’s novel about a future in which women are subservient to men reached number one on the Amazon.com bestseller list on Tuesday, The Washington Post reported.
So now it’s clear: dystopian novels are all the rage in the era of U.S. President Donald Trump.
READ MORE: George Orwell classic ‘1984’ gets sales boost after Trump advisor coins ‘alternative facts’
It’s difficult to say whether Trump’s presidency is the driving force behind recent sales for The Handmaid’s Tale.
The novel’s status atop the bestseller list comes a little under two months before a TV adaptation of the book is set to debut on the U.S. streaming service Hulu, on April 26.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dre0wQmLGe8
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But people have noted similarities between the novel’s story and the era in which it’s found new popularity.
The Handmaid’s Tale tells the story of the Republic of Gilead, a futuristic dictatorship run by religious extremists that’s been created inside the borders of what was once known as the U.S.A.
It’s a place where the U.S. constitution has been suspended and women are now considered property. They’re not allowed to read and a specific class of women is exploited for reproductive purposes.
Offred, a handmaid, lives under the control of the Commander, and is made to lie with him in the hope that she becomes pregnant.
WATCH BELOW: Margaret Atwood issues tweets as part of the #TwitterFiction Festival.
The success of The Handmaid’s Tale comes weeks after Orwell’s 1984 – another story about an authoritarian future society – saw spiking sales after Trump aide Kellyanne Conway coined the term “alternative facts” in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press.
Many drew comparisons between Conway’s term and concepts raised in Orwell’s novel.
The next dystopian novel
Speaking to NPR on Tuesday, Atwood talked about how the next major dystopian novel wouldn’t be a book at all.
Events, she said, are “evolving so fast” that a novel simply couldn’t keep up with them.
“I think we might go back to newspaper serials,” she told the radio station.
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