In this electrifying sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood answers the question that has tantalised readers for decades: What happened to Offred?
THE NUMBER 1 BESTSELLER AND WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE
'The Testaments is Atwood at her best . . . To read this book is to feel the world turning'
Anne Enright
The Republic of Gilead is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, two girls with radically different experiences of the regime come face to face with the legendary, ruthless Aunt Lydia. But how far will each go for what she believes?
'Everything The Handmaid's Tale fans wanted and more. Prepare to hold your breath throughout, and to cry real tears at the end'
Stylist
'Atwood challenges us constantly and poses the question that lies like a pearl inside the shell of this frighteningly readable novel, "Before you sit in judgement, how would you behave in Gilead?'''
Sunday Telegraph
About the Author
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. 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, went back into the bestseller charts with the election of Donald Trump, when the Handmaids became a symbol of resistance against the disempowerment of women, and with the 2017 release of the award-winning Channel 4 TV series. Its sequel, The Testaments, was published in 2019 and was a global number one bestseller and won the Booker Prize.
Atwood has won numerous awards including the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade and the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature. She has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright and puppeteer. She lives in Toronto, Canada.
Industry Reviews
Thrilling and blistering * Daily Telegraph *
An incredible follow-up * the Sun, *Pick of the Week* *
Gripping, pacy and beautifully written -- Justine Jordan * Guardian *
Finding hope in a hopeless place, this is everything The Handmaid's Tale fans wanted and more. Prepare to hold your breath throughout, and to cry real tears at the end. My book of the year -- Kayleigh Dray * Stylist *
The Testaments is Atwood at her best, in its mixture of generosity, insight and control. The prose is adroit, direct, beautifully turned. All over the reading world, the history books are being opened to the next blank page and Atwood's name is written at the top of it. To read this book is to feel the world turning -- Anne Enright * Guardian *
I gobbled it down... Atwood has an incredible intellectual nimbleness that challenges us constantly and poses the question that lies like a pearl inside the shell of this frighteningly readable novel, "Before you sit in judgement, how would you behave in Gilead?" -- Allison Pearson * Sunday Telegraph *
No one needs another recommendation for The Testaments and still I have to say how thrilling it is when a book manages to exceed all expectations. How did she manage to make darkness feel so effortless? How did she think to inject humour where no humour should exist? Because she's Margaret Atwood, and she can do anything -- Ann Patchett
A cracker: urgent, moving and as tense as any thriller... there's a darkly rebellious humour, ingenious wordplay and, of course, chillingly timely warnings. Atwood is long overdue a Nobel -- Hepzibah Anderson * Mail on Sunday *
At its heart, this gripping novel is a rallying call for action... In Atwood's world, resistance is never futile -- Mernie Gilmore * Daily Express *
The must-read novel of the year -- a perfect gift for bookworms and fans of the TV series * Sunday Telegraph *
Believe the reviews, it is remarkable -- Lindsay Woods * Irish Examiner *
A plump, pacy, witty and tightly plotted page-turner that transports us straight back to the dark heart of Gilead... Atwood is on top form -- Julie Myerson * Observer *
The Testaments is that elusive dream of a book -- an erudite, accessible, highly readable adventure, that brims with ideas but never lets them get in the way of the story -- Cathy Rentzenbrink * Prospect *
While unflinching in depicting horror and showing how complicity enables the collapse of compassion, The Testaments is also a clarion call to hope, resistance and activism... a formidable achievement that will doubtless be read in decades to come -- Anita Sethi * i news *
With surgical clarity, Atwood documents how the stripping of fundamental freedoms, the weight of systemic oppression, pushes individuals to extremes... The pacing is flawless. The prose is lean, mean, and charged -- David Canfield * Entertainment Weekly *
