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Why are The Handmaid's Tale and Orwell's 1984 currently best-selling?
Today, I've seen that Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale and George Orwell's 1984, both dystopian novels, are #1 and #2 on Amazon's "Best Sellers in Books".
1984 is also #1 on USA Today's Best-Selling Books list, whereas last week it was only #105. (cf. http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/best-selling/)
Does anyone know what caused this peak in interest in these not-exactly-new dystopian novels just now?
I'm simply curious. FYI, I'm European so I wouldn't know if these books had been mentioned in some influential TV program or something like that. :-)
Thanks, guys! I can see the connection between 1984 and Conway's "alternative facts" but was puzzled by The Handmaid's Tale.
I hadn't been aware of that remake - and I just saw that its first trailer apparently aired during the Super Bowl which explains the timing of the sales rise.
Now it all makes sense to me! :-)
4 Answers
- MsBittnerLv 74 years agoFavourite answer
In addition to tham's and Gert's answers, there's an upcoming remake of "The Handmaid's Tale" which will soon air on Hulu, so it's probably drawing additional attention to the source work.
- Anonymous4 years ago
The connection to The Handmaid's Tale is the new Vice President Mike Pence is anti-gay, anti-woman and anti-abortion. The Republic of Gilead is his idea of a utopia and it's what he's like to see America become.
