Famed Canadian Author Margaret Atwood Is Writing a Sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale”

Canadian novelist and literary critic Margaret Atwood announced on Wednesday, November 28, that she will write a sequel to her critically acclaimed best selling book, The Handmaid’s Tale. Set to be published on Tuesday, September 10, 2019, the sequel, called The Testaments, will take place 15 years after the first book and the entire story will be told by three main characters. Atwood said that the current state of America politics and the status of women more than 30 years after her first book was released in 1985 was one of the main inspirations to write a second book.

Atwood’s first book follows the life and struggle of a woman named Offred in a dystopian Christian theocratic country occupying the former United States of America called Gilead who is forced to birth a child of the elites. Atwood’s book has become a popular culture in the Trump era as Hulu’s adaptation of the book starring Mad Men’s Elizbeth Moss won multiple Emmys including Outstanding Drama Series.

This is not the first time a sequel to a original book has gained hyped in recent years. In 2015, Harper Lee’s sequel to the classic American novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Go See a Watchman, was a critically acclaimed success as it follows an adult Scout and her now racist father Atticus.