COLD WAR
Atwood, author of more than 40 books of fiction, poetry and critical essays, said it was surprising to many that signs of totalitarianism were manifesting themselves in the United States of today.
It's a far cry from the Berlin of the Cold War, still surrounded by the wall that divided Germany, where she started writing The Handmaid's Tale, she recalled.
"People in Europe saw the United States as a beacon of democracy, freedom, openness, and they did not want to believe that anything like that could ever happen there," she said.
"But now, times have changed, and, unfortunately it becomes more possible to think in those terms."
Although work on the TV series starring Elisabeth Moss began before last November's U.S. presidential election, Trump's victory changed the setting "quite radically", said Atwood.
"That is one of the reasons that the show has been so popular ... people suddenly feel that it's a possible reality for them," she said.
Women's rights activists clad in the distinctive white bonnets and red gowns worn by handmaids in the fictional theocratic state of Gilead have taken part in recent protests in several U.S. state capitals.
"The book has escaped from the covers, the television show has escaped from being just a show," said Atwood.
"It's out in the world."
