The Testaments
15 years after the sons of Jacob seized power in the USA and became Gilead. The story is told from three female viewpoints; Daisy, Agnes and Lydia. Daisy struggles with coming to the realization of her past and who she really is, Agnes tells her story and life in Gilead, and Lydia contemplates her life and decisions made. When the van door slammed on Offred's future at the end of The Handmaid's Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her--freedom, prison or death. With The Testaments, the wait is over. Margaret Atwood's sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead. In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades. "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
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2019–2021years
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What Hacker News says
- That's brilliant! I wholeheartedly agree. In case anyone wonders where this saying comes from, my quick search attributes it to Margaret Atwood, from her book "The Testaments" [0].
[0] https://niemanstoryboard.org/stories/as-they-say-history-does-not-repeat-itself-but-it-rhymes/ - The Seattle Public Library has 769 holds on the ebook of Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, with 146 copies! One copy is ridiculous. This is almost three times the number of holds on physical books (376 physical books total, I'm 286 on the waitlist for it).
- > I think it would be hard to somewhat regularly buy books or go to a (typical English language) bookstore without seeing anything about Margaret Atwood.
The past month you cannot have entered any decently sized bookshop carrying new titles without encountering her name with The Testaments out. In my local bookshop I find the hardcover original English edition, its Dutch translation, The Handmaid's Tale in English and Dutch in editions ranging from paperback to luxury hardcover, and a bunch of her other works.
Before that, The Handmaid's Tale has been prominently displayed ever since the TV series came out.
- It? What is it? The Testaments? The Handmaid's Tale?
Margaret Atwood has written much more than those two books - she is a prolific author. According to Wikipedia she's she has published 17 books of poetry, 16 novels, 10 books of non-fiction, eight collections of short fiction, eight children's books, and one graphic novel, as well as a number of small press editions in poetry and fiction. Her works are popular, both with the general public and with critics.
