It's been more than 30 years since Canadian author Margaret Atwood published her revolutionary sci-fi novel The Handmaid's Tale. Since its release, the book has become a symbol of female resistance, thanks in part to its wildly popular Hulu adaptation—and now Atwood has revealed that she's going to take the story further by writing a sequel called The Testaments.
In a press release, Atwood shared that The Testaments will be out in September 2019. It will pick up 15 years after the final scene in the original book and will be told from the perspective of three women. Like the television series, The Handmaid's Tale novel is set in Gilead, a dystopian world in which fertile women (called handmaids) are forced to bear children for wealthier families. Both the show and the book follow Offred, a handmaid who is assigned to a rich couple, and her story in the novel ends ambiguously. Atwood's sequel could finally offer a glimpse into what became of the character.
“Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything!” Atwood writes in the release. "The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in."
Atwood has previously shared that she wrote The Handmaid's Tale while living in West Berlin and that she drew inspiration from examples of women's struggles throughout history.
"It may look like only a year, but the real answer is 4,000 years because that’s how much of women’s history I was drawing on," she said in a speech last year.
Although the Hulu adaptation has boosted The Handmaid's Tale popularity, Atwood's publisher has said the show will not be connected to the new book. Still, the series starring Elisabeth Moss has brought the world of Gilead to new audiences and has inspired women amid the #MeToo era and the Trump administration. Many women have taken to wearing the red robes from the series during reproductive rights demonstrations, and some even wore the costume to protest the confirmation of controversial Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
