Since the re-election of Donald Trump, sales of this science fiction classic have exploded

Donald Trump's return to the White House propelled The Scarlet Handmaid by Margaret Atwood tops sales on Amazon in one day. A testimony to the current resonance of his words?

Across the Atlantic, after several months of an intense presidential campaign, the Americans decided and overwhelmingly voted in favor of Donald Trump, re-elected for a second term against Kamala Harris. The vote notably had an unexpected impact on book sales, as reported by the channel CNNwhich reveals that The Scarlet Handmaid by Margaret Atwood is experiencing a spectacular resurgence of interest in online stores and bookstores. Sales of the dystopian novel jumped 6,866% in one day, going from 209th to 3rd place on Amazon, where it now leads the literary and political fiction categories, and 9th at Barnes & Noble.

This science fiction book, published in 1985, describes a totalitarian society where women are reduced to reproductive functions under religious rule. The author, Margaret Atwood, draws inspiration from American history and the mechanisms of dictatorships to denounce the dangers of fanaticism and authoritarianism, which makes it a particularly relevant text in the face of recent political developments in the United States.

1984 and Fahrenheit 451 also move up the rankings

Donald Trump's presidential campaign, marked by his anti-abortion positions and his support for overturning the Roe vs. Wade, intensified the parallels between American reality and the oppressive universe of Gilead. In response, public figures mentioned this book, The Handmaid’s Tale in the original language, as a warning against the decline of women's rights. Valerie Jarrett, former adviser to Barack Obama, even compared Trump's re-election to a return to the world of The Scarlet Handmaidhighlighting women's growing concerns about these policies.

This renewed interest is part of a broader trend where dystopian works like 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, exploring themes of surveillance and censorship, also saw their sales explode.