The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

I needed this bookend to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which has haunted me since I first read it not long after it came out, and especially after seeing the first season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which brought the seeping sense of dread to life again. 

When readers claimed that nothing like Gilead could happen in real life, Margaret Atwood rightly replied that anything can happen at any time if the circumstances are right. As the US is skewing toward Gilead, the historical retrospective of The Testaments looks back on Gilead and The Handmaid’s Tale era, to explain how the events happened. More hopefully, The Testaments reveals the hidden heroes who worked to take down the Gilead system from the inside. While The Handmaid’s Tale details a theocracy that took society off the rails, The Testaments was a soothing (and sometimes infuriating) reminder that humanity can find a sane purchase again. 

If The Handmaid’s Tale freaked you out as much as it did me, then you need to read The Testaments!

NOTE: Check out the Politics & Prose interview with Margaret Atwood on The Testaments in the video below.

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