“The Handmaid. That’s what they called me.” In sinister criminal structures where they don’t know what a conscience is, but understand what family and honor mean, there are such girls—handmaids. Splendid and dangerous. Loyal helpers to their masters. Valuable employees of shadow organizations. Usually they live quite well—at least between assignments. Ella is one of them, but her fate is different. Since she was sixteen, Ella has lived in captivity. She’s used, she’s mocked—this is her life. But one fine day her master sells her, and Ella is deeply mistaken when she believes it can’t get any worse than before. Her new owner, Esher Scott, the head of a powerful criminal network, hates handmaids in general—and Ella in particular. Day by day she sinks into a sticky nightmare, yet she refuses to give up. A cruel game begins—rivalry of feelings—and in this showdown Ella must win. What it will cost her is another question. Her first stories, by Sarah Rivens (b. 1999), were published on Wattpad—the largest online platform for readers and writers. That’s also where, in 2020, the first chapters of “The Handmaid. Book 1” appeared; within a community of 90 million people, the author became incredibly popular. Since then, Ella and Esher’s story has captured the minds and hearts of countless readers and continues to win new fans, and Sarah Rivens has become the most famous and widely read Algerian writer in the country’s history: the “Handmaid” trilogy has been translated into nine languages; on Wattpad these books have been read nine million times; and in France (Sarah Rivens writes in French) the combined print run of paper editions exceeds half a million copies—these books have firmly established themselves on bestseller lists, pushing even Prince Harry’s memoirs as soon as the final installment was released! First in Russian!