In a time of regressing women’s rights around the world, Penguin Random House has made a resounding political statement in support of free speech—of the female persuasion. Currently on auction at Sotheby’s New York is an ‘unburnable’ copy of Margaret’s Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), printed and bound using fireproof materials, sending a clear signal to those who would stifle the story of Offred and the other handmaids, enslaved as child-bearers in the futuristic, totalitarian Republic of Gilead.

Proceeds from the Sotheby’s sale of the limited edition book will go to PEN America, which, according to its mission statement, ‘stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide.’ In a heartening display of liberal, feminist strength, the PRH campaign for ‘The Unburnable Book’, unveiled at the 2022 PEN gala event held 26 May, features literary icon Atwood herself firing a blowtorch at her own metaphorically ‘resistant’ book. It’s an image worth a hundred thousand words.