Margaret Atwood’s topical classic, The Handmaid’s Tale, is getting a sequel more than thirty years later.
The follow-up to her most well-known work will be titled The Testaments, the author revealed in a tweet on Wednesday, Vanity Fair reported. It’s expected to launch in September of 2019. Atwood said the new novel will be narrated by three female leads. It will take place some 15 years after the original tale helmed by Offred.
Yes indeed to those who asked: I’m writing a sequel to The #HandmaidsTale. #TheTestaments is set 15 years after Offred’s final scene and is narrated by three female characters. It will be published in Sept 2019. More details: https://t.co/e1umh5FwpX pic.twitter.com/pePp0zpuif
— Margaret E. Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) November 28, 2018
“Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book,” Atwood wrote in a statement. “Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.”
Atwood has been very outspoken about how she agrees with the parallels drawn by the public between her 1985 book and the current Trump presidency, even before her book was turned into a hit, Emmy-winning Hulu show.
“What, exactly, came after Gilead—or how, precisely, the reign of Gilead reached its end—is what readers will presumably find out in The Testaments,” Atwood said.
Currently unknown is how the author’s ideas for the new novel will influence the Elisabeth Moss-helmed show. Atwood was heavily involved in the TV adaptation of her book.
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