Canadian author Margaret Atwood has announced that she is writing a sequel to her iconic novel The Handmaid’s Tale titled The Testaments. Atwood made the announcement through a video on Twitter. The book will be released in September 2019.
The Handmaid’s Tale, published in 1985, is set in a dystopian future where a totalitarian state named Gilead had overthrown the United States government and holds women in subjugation, controlling all aspects of their life, especially their reproductive rights. The protagonist of the novel, Offred, is one of many handmaids who are held in captivity and treated as no more than breeding machines.
The bestselling novel has sold eight million copies in English worldwide since it was published and has gained a massive resurgence in popularity in the last few years due to a TV adaptation and its prescient take on women’s rights, misogyny and reproductive rights, particularly in the United States.
“Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book,” Atwood said about the book, adding, “Well almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.”
The Testaments is set 15 years after the final scene of The Handmaid’s Tale, which left readers in doubt about Offred’s final fate, and will be narrated by three female characters.
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