- Sales of “The Handmaid’s Tale” surged by nearly 7,000% on Amazon as of Thursday, CNN reported.
- It was the No. 2 book on Amazon’s bestseller list as of Friday afternoon.
- The No. 1 book? “Melania,” the memoir by Melania Trump.
Since Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 election, Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” has surged from No. 209 to No. 2 on the Amazon Best Sellers list.
By Thursday morning, sales of the book had surged 6,866%, CNN reported, citing Amazon’s data at the time.
But perhaps illustrating how divided the country is, the No. 1 book on Amazon’s Best Sellers list as of Friday afternoon was Melania Trump’s memoir “Melania,” which came out last month.
It was a similar story at Barnes & Noble, where “Melania” took the top spot on its trending books list, and “The Handmaid’s Tale” has popped up at No. 10.
In the foreword to her book, Melania Trump wrote: “I believe it is important to share my perspective, the truth, especially in these times of division and uncertainty. As a private person who has often been the subject of public scrutiny and misrepresentation, I feel a responsibility to set the record straight and to provide the actual account of my experiences.”
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Following Trump’s win, Atwood, a frequent Trump critic, posted on X: “Despair is not an option. It helps no one,” above an image of a weeping Statue of Liberty.
Her book is set in a totalitarian society where many women are slave-like child-bearers to men of the ruling class. Reproductive rights became one of the big issues of the 2024 election since Roe vs. Wade was overturned in 2022 under Trump. He’s since said he supports leaving abortion rights up to states to decide. Kamala Harris was a supporter of abortion rights.
Other dystopian books saw spikes in sales in the wake of the election.
George Orwell’s “1984,” which warns of the rise of totalitarianism, rose 250% in Amazon sales. And Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451,” about a world where all books are outlawed, rose 333% in sales as of Thursday, CNN reported. By Friday, “1984” was at No. 13 on Amazon’s list and “Fahrenheit” at No. 18.
But again, perhaps illustrating the divided country, incoming Vice President JD Vance’s book, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” was at the No. 7 spot on Amazon as of Friday afternoon.
