Which 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood has been banned in some schools for its sexual content?

The 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood that has been banned in some schools for its sexual content is The Handmaid's Tale.

The novel is a dystopian story set in Gilead, a theocratic regime that has replaced the United States. Women have lost their legal, economic, and personal freedoms, and fertile women known as Handmaids are forced to bear children for elite couples. The narrator, Offred, records her life under this system while remembering the family and independence she once had.

Atwood drew on historical examples of authoritarianism, religious control, forced reproduction, and the regulation of women's bodies. The book has been challenged for sexual content, profanity, violence, and themes some complain are hostile to religious values. Its sexual material is not presented as simple entertainment; it is part of the novel's examination of coercion and political power.

A common mix-up is confusing the novel with its sequel, The Testaments, published in 2019. The Handmaid's Tale was the original 1985 book and remains the title most associated with school challenges and debates over censorship.