The Testaments

by Margaret Atwood

Paperback, 562 pages

English language

Published Feb. 4, 2019 by Random House Large Print.

ISBN:: 978-0-593-14909-6

(11 reviews)

15 years after the sons of Jacob seized power in the USA and became Gilead. The story is told from three female viewpoints; Daisy, Agnes and Lydia. Daisy struggles with coming to the realization of her past and who she really is, Agnes tells her story and life in Gilead, and Lydia contemplates her life and decisions made.

When the van door slammed on Offred's future at the end of The Handmaid's Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her--freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood's sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

"Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about …

When the van door slammed on Offred's future at the end of The Handmaid's Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her--freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood's sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

"Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in." --Margaret Atwood

11 editions

SocProf reviewed The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Review of 'The Testaments' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Margaret Atwood must have thought that, in these trying times, we needed a happy ending to the Handmaid's Tale. In this sequel, the book revolves around the writings of three characters: Aunt Lydia (with a different backstory than the TV show), and June Osborne's daughters. They tell their stories, Aunt Lydia from the fall of the US and the rise of Gilead, Agnes, from her early childhood in Gilead, and Nicole, from her adolescence in Canada where she was smuggled from Gilead while a baby (the famed Baby Nicole). Aunt Lydia is shown as less a true believer than in the show, but more cynical and ruthless, and just as evil. Gilead is a pile of rot, as is any theocracy.
This is a page turner and a gripping tale.