Overview
Praise be, Handmaid's Tale fans — the iconic novel behind everyone's favourite dystopian TV series is getting a sequel.
The Hulu-produced, Emmy-winning television show has already aired a second season, with a third due to hit next year. But now author Margaret Atwood is penning a printed follow-up to the 1985 book that started it all.
Called The Testaments, it's set 15 years after Offred's final scene in the novel, and is narrated by three female characters. Fans will have to wait a bit for their return to Gilead, with the book releasing on September 10, 2019.
While Atwood's original novel built a rich, immersive and oh-so-bleak world that's rife with sequel potential, that's not her only inspiration for The Testaments. Announcing the second effort on Twitter, Atwood noted that she's taking some cues from today's Handmaid's-like times. "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," Atwood said in the post.
Given how scarily prescient the first book was, and how close to home it hit, that's hardly surprising. Just imagine what the Canadian writer will be able to dream up this time — or, if you don't want to fret about the state of the world, perhaps don't.
Pre-orders are now open for The Testaments, if you're keen to get your red-cloaked mitts on it the moment it's available. We're betting that the new book will be a hot topic of conversation when Atwood visits Australia in March next year to chat about — what else? — dystopian futures.
The Testaments is scheduled for released on September 10, 2019.