The Testaments

Margaret Atwood’s spellbinding sequel to The Handmaid's Tale was inspired by readers’ responses to the first book and ‘the world we’ve been living in’.  ‘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

‘And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light.’ When the van door slammed on Offred’s future at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, what lay ahead for her? Freedom or prison? Life or death? The Testaments picks up the story fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead. and whilst the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives and explosive testaments of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results. 

"It is a savage and beautiful novel that speaks to us today with conviction and power. The bar is set unusually high for Atwood. She soars."  -  The 2019 Booker Prize Judges

Margaret Atwood is the world-renowned author of more than 50 books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. The multi-award-winning author has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright and puppeteer. Her novels include Cat’s Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin and the MaddAddam trilogy. Her 1985 classic, The Handmaid’s Tale, was followed in 2019 by a sequel, The Testaments, which was a global number one bestseller and won the Booker Prize. She has also been shortlisted for The Man Booker International Prize 2005 and 2007 for her entire body of work.