Description
Winner of The Booker Prize 2019
‘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
Launched to widespread acclaim Margaret Atwood’s Booker-winning sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale is undoubtedly the story for our times.
Picking up ten years after its predecessor’s tantalisingly open-ended conclusion, The Testaments provides a new window into Atwood’s dystopian world, as seen through the eyes of three women of Gilead: a girl brought up within its confines, another on the run beyond its walls, and a woman at the very heart of the regime’s dark designs with secrets of her own. Each has a unique perspective on the world of Gilead and each will be crucial in deciding its fate.
Effortlessly combining a piercing critique of gender, oppression and authoritarianism with the whip-smart pace of the purest literary thriller, The Testaments is devastating in its immediacy whilst remaining a timeless piece of faultless storytelling.
MEDIA REVIEWS
‘The Testaments belongs to our moment of history, when things in a number of countries seem to be heading more towards Gilead’ – The Guardian
‘The Testaments is a much more accessible book than its brilliant yet forbidding predecessor. At times it races along like a spy thriller written by Charles Dickens, rich in suspense, coincidence and messy humanity.’ – The Sunday Telegraph
‘One of the greatest writers of the past century. A world without Margaret Atwood in it would not be anywhere near as brilliant’ – The Sunday Times
‘A blockbuster of propulsive, almost breathless narrative, stacked with twists and turns worthy of a Gothic novel.’ – The Daily Telegraph
‘An addictively readable, fast-paced adventure…. A hopeful reminder that resistance is possible and such regimes do fall.’ – The Independent