Why testaments

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The importance of storytelling is a major theme in the novel. Storytelling has the capacity to forge chains and to break them, to shape identities and make people cooperate. Reading and writing are dangerous; both can sow the seeds of doubt that encourage free-thinking and, in turn, rebellion or revolution.

Only those with power have access to the forbidden knowledge. The regime also recognizes that stories underpin and buttress belief — the right stories, if edited to fit the political agenda, can be used for propaganda. In Gilead, women are supposed to be silent, illiterate witnesses, passive beyond domesticity. In writing their testimonies, our three female sources offer an alternative narrative to the patriarchal one offered by the state. Female testimonies might not be deemed important in this tyranny, but they are integral to our understanding of the greater story.

Women may have been instrumental in forging Gilead, but they are also instrumental in demolishing it. Many fans thought the novel prescient when Trump came into power. In newspapers, we still see images of refugees in lifeboats on rough seas, stories of human trafficking and victim-blaming, struggles over abortion rights, and climate change denial. A knowledge of history enables Aunt Lydia — as she is known in Gilead — to anticipate coming events after an unexpected coup in the United States.

In The Testaments , Atwood provides her own. Tedious though it may be, this knowledge endows her with agency — she knows which roles to assume to survive. The Aunt Lydia presented here is not wholly unsympathetic. We learn she was a family court judge and the first of her family, all trailer dwellers, to attend college. Given a choice, she has no intention of falling from the ladder she has climbed.

I had prevailed. That was my story to myself. And vice versa, of course. The Moon is ever changing, but predictable in its fickleness. The Moon cycle has an inevitable trajectory, as it ripens and shrinks in the night sky.

History too will keep turning and turning, like the Moon that waxes and wanes. The Moon reappears in the narrative in different parts of its cycle.

There is a full Moon near the beginning, which reminds Aunt Lydia of Easter and forgotten Neolithic fertility goddesses, while the closure we seek is also witnessed by a full Moon. Rather than fall prey to fortune, Aunt Lydia wants to be instrumental in turning the wheel; she wants to hold on to power.

Yet never does she let go of her judicial need for retribution. It was sometimes hard to look, or to look away. In The Testaments , Atwood reclaims the right to consider such difficulties rather than simply imagine them.

She is interested not in how people become degraded, as objects that is so easily done , but how they became morally compromised. There are three narrators, two of them young and idealistic, one of them old and endlessly cunning.

The most compelling portrait is that of wickedness — of course it is. The story is driven and described by the infamous Aunt Lydia, and she is just as terrifying, in her astringency, as you would expect her to be.

Her induction into the order of Aunts is described with a chilling vigour. The first book was good on the envy between women, when they have no power; The Testaments looks at collaboration — another vice of the oppressed.

Lydia, however, collaborates as an equal, not as a victim; she is not in thrall. Indeed, she is happy to destroy women who have internalised the values of the patriarchal regime: one girl, Shunammite, is coldly sacrificed to her own silliness, a move that Lydia seems to enjoy.

Lydia may be in charge of the novel, but hers is not the only point of view. About the author Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Also by Margaret Atwood. Praise for The Testaments. My book of the year Kayleigh Dray, Stylist The Testaments is Atwood at her best, in its mixture of generosity, insight and control. To read this book is to feel the world turning Anne Enright, Guardian I gobbled it down Atwood is long overdue a Nobel Hepzibah Anderson, Mail on Sunday At its heart, this gripping novel is a rallying call for action In Atwood's world, resistance is never futile Mernie Gilmore, Daily Express The must-read novel of the year -- a perfect gift for bookworms and fans of the TV series Sunday Telegraph Believe the reviews, it is remarkable Lindsay Woods, Irish Examiner A plump, pacy, witty and tightly plotted page-turner that transports us straight back to the dark heart of Gilead Atwood is on top form Julie Myerson, Observer The Testaments is that elusive dream of a book -- an erudite, accessible, highly readable adventure, that brims with ideas but never lets them get in the way of the story Cathy Rentzenbrink, Prospect While unflinching in depicting horror and showing how complicity enables the collapse of compassion, The Testaments is also a clarion call to hope, resistance and activism The prose is lean, mean, and charged David Canfield, Entertainment Weekly The literary release of the year Like Kafka and Orwell, Atwood has become part of the public discourse Lisa Allardice, Guardian A terrifyingly stark and prescient read Stylist Fluent, imaginative and provocative Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday It is an addictively readable, fastpaced adventure In The Testaments , Atwood changes the emphasis of the plot, to strike a note of optimism — a hopeful reminder that resistance is possible and such regimes do eventually always fall Holly Williams, Independent Amid the concern Atwood's dark vision of modern totalitarianism, fuelled by unbridled capitalism, ecological meltdown, collapsing birth rates, and rising religious extremism no longer looks darkly speculative, but alarmingly familiar Rebecca Abrams, Financial Times Margaret Atwood saw it all coming Lucy Feldman, Time While The Handmaid's Tale explored how totalitarian regimes come to power, The Testaments delves into how they begin to fracture Atwood is at the top of her game 1 Book of the Year, Amazon.

And the four hundred and fourteen pages of The Testaments gave Atwood plenty of room for just that Esquire A confluence of political and cultural forces has made The Testaments as vital as a baby in Gilead Ron Charles, Washington Post The book may surprise readers who wondered, when the sequel was announced, whether Atwood was making a mistake in returning to her earlier work.

She is one of the greatest writers of the past century Lorraine Candy, Sunday Times Margaret Atwood has just done her own thing and now she is one of those authors who is helping to change the culture.

When The Handmaid's Tale was published in , it just seemed that that kind of theocracy and patriarchy she was depicting couldn't happen, the world was progressing, but look where we are Jeanette Winterson, Sunday Times A hopeful tale. It is massively satisfying to find this kind of heightened reality in fiction Natasha Walter, Guardian Ingenuity has always delighted Atwood. The twists and turns of an extravagantly suspenseful final race for freedom are done with bravura relish Peter Kemp, Sunday Times The Testaments take us to a subtly altered Gilead and, in many ways, a more hopeful one Atwood's task in returning to the world of her best-known work was a big one, but the result is a success Alex Clark, Guardian Atwood's voice has become a rallying cry against climate change and threats to equality Time Atwood cracks open the claustrophobic world of Gilead and lets in some much-needed light and hope.

Erica Wagner, New Statesman Beautiful in its depth There is a need now to look at what complicity, resilience and resistance might look like Peter Florence, Chair of Booker Judges, The Times Atwood mania is entirely merited. Yet nothing has taken flight like her patriarchal dystopia, and nowhere more so than among women Hannah Betts, Daily Telegraph She's always before her time.

This is an intriguing book from a woman who knows she can do bleak any day of the week Sophie Charara, Wired The Testaments combines gripping entertainment with a complex sense of humanity Sarah Ditum, Lancet Lydia's fascinating tale serves almost as a prequel, while the girls' stirring battle is peppered with pithy wit.

Atwood's particular genius is pushing and pushing at sexist tropes until they reach their grotesque but ultimately logical conclusion Ceri Radford, Independent Taylor Swift would kill for this kind of drama Discover more. Announcing the Booker Longlist. On design: The Testaments. Gilead games.

The Testaments book club notes. Related titles. The Shadow. The Handmaid's Tale. Brave New World. Good Omens. Neil Gaiman , Terry Pratchett. Ready Player One. The Lincoln Highway. The Man Who Died Twice. A Slow Fire Burning.

Snow Country. The Promise. The Echo Chamber. Daisy Jones and The Six.