New York — Thanks to public demand, and a certain American president, Margaret Atwood is writing a sequel to her million-selling "The Handmaid's Tale."
"The Testaments" will be published next September by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, the publisher announced Wednesday.
The book is set 15 years after the final scene of Offred, narrator of "The Handmaid's Tale." Atwood's novel about a dystopian society in the imagined land of Gilead was a best seller when first published in 1985 and was back on the charts after Donald Trump's election in 2016.
The novel is also the basis for an acclaimed miniseries on Hulu.
In this Oct. 14, 2018 file photo, Margaret Atwood arrives at the 16th Annual Hammer Museum Gala in the Garden in Los Angeles. Atwood is writing a sequel to her million-selling “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
“The Testaments” will be published next September by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, the publisher announced Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
Atwood, a Canadian author, said in a statement that the sequel was inspired by readers' questions about Gilead and by the "world we've been living in."
The original book told of Offred, one of many women who have been stripped of their previous identities and rights and forced into sexual servitude by the commanders of the Gilead regime.