The Testaments

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The Testaments

By: Margaret Atwood

Narrated by: Bryce Dallas Howard, Ann Dowd, Mae Whitman, Derek Jacobi, Tantoo Cardinal, Margaret Atwood

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Winner of the Booker Prize 2019.

The British Book Awards Audiobook of the Year 2020

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood is read by Ann Dowd, Bryce Dallas Howard and Mae Whitman with Derek Jacobi, Tantoo Cardinal and Margaret Atwood.

Margaret Atwood's dystopian masterpiece, The Handmaid's Tale, is a modern classic. Now she brings the iconic story to a dramatic conclusion in this riveting sequel.

More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.

Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets.

As Atwood unfolds The Testaments, she opens up the innermost workings of Gilead as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.

'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

Dystopian

Fiction

Genre Fiction

Literary Fiction

Science Fiction

Thought-Provoking

Classics

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Critic reviews

Gripping, pacy and beautifully written (Justine Jordan)

Finding hope in a hopeless place, this is everything The Handmaid’s Tale fans wanted and more. Prepare to hold your breath throughout, and to cry real tears at the end. My book of the year (Kayleigh Dray)

The Testaments is Atwood at her best, in its mixture of generosity, insight and control. The prose is adroit, direct, beautifully turned. All over the reading world, the history books are being opened to the next blank page and Atwood’s name is written at the top of it. To read this book is to feel the world turning (Anne Enright)

Most relevant

I listened to this audio book in three long sittings because I simply couldn’t stop. Like a train on a track the narrative of this book steams ahead, growing in power and momentum. It is impossible to stop, once started.
I, like many others, found THE HANDMAID’S TALE to be one of the most important books of the C20th & as a professional historian I’ve often dwelt on how the Past & present converge in the story. So I was keen to read the much anticipated sequel - having watched all three seasons of the HULU TV production too I wanted to know if there would be any nod towards the storylines crafted there. There is. Big time.
In many respects THE TESTAMENTS is a world apart from THE HANDMAID’S TALE. It is far less claustrophobic, less ‘bitty’, less surreal. It is also less doomed, less gloomy, less violent. In fact THE TESTAMENTS is oddly, fascinatingly upbeat. It is a paean to the #MeToo movement, an empowering story of fighting the system.
The historian in me was satisfied: I got a good sense of the expansion and crisis of the mature Gileadaean regime and the use of Historical Notes to close the book - echoing THE HANDMAID’S TALE - was very satisfying.
As an audio book, this is a wonderful production. Each of the three protagonists is played well, but a special notice goes to Ann Dowd, reprising her TV role as Aunt Lydia. Her voice has such melody, such an incredible cadence that it was quite hypnotic. Atwood gives Aunt Lydia some very funny, tongue-in-cheek lines; Ann Dowd delivers them to perfection.
I enjoyed this book enormously. I recommend it as a clear classic of our time.

Remarkable! Oddly Uplifting