The Testaments

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, 2019, fiction, 419 pages, hardback.

Reviewed by Joanne Shawhan

In the sequel, to Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood returns to Gilead, 15 years after the Handmaid called Offred recorded her indelible experiences. Readers will again enter a dystopia of eerie orderliness as women under ruthless surveillance, their social status indicated by cumbersome, color-coded uniforms, are forced into dehumanizing rituals of sex and punishment.

One key character returns, the formidable Aunt Lydia. But in this very different novel, three women tell their stories, the lens widens so that Gilead is seen from the outside, and the focus is not only on men oppressing women, but also on women wielding power. Particularly powerful is the description of how Aunt Lydia went from prisoner to collaborator and active participant in the early days of Gilead. The result is a shrewdly suspenseful tale of survival and resistance.