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 Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.
This week's book is Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and we'll be meeting at The Fletcher Moss on William Street in Didsbury.