The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Book Review by Kristine Madera
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.
About Kristine
Kristine Madera is an Amazon #1 bestselling author who writes fiction and nonfiction shaped by travel, culture, and lived cross-cultural experience.
Inspired while volunteering at Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying in Calcutta, her novel God in Drag examines what happens when spiritual faith fractures in the sacred city of Varanasi. Read the first chapter of God in Drag HERE
She birthed her upcoming novel, The Snakeman’s Wife, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Papua New Guinea.
Be on the lookout for her Etiquette Express Guides, a series of short, practical travel guides that help readers understand the customs, social expectations, and everyday dos and don’ts that make travel smoother and more connected.
Her travels have taken her across India, Asia, Europe, Australia, and Papua New Guinea as both a backpacker and Peace Corps Volunteer. A portion of her book proceeds supports cross-cultural education scholarships.