Audiobook expands Handmaid’s Tale

NEW YORK — Margaret Atwood hasn’t quite finished telling The Handmaid’s Tale.

The Canadian author has provided additional material for a special audio edition coming out next week exclusively from audio producer and distributor Audible.com, which is owned by Amazon.com. The audiobook expands upon a version released in 2012 and narrated by Claire Danes, Audible said Tuesday. Atwood’s novel, as related through a handmaid known as “Offred,” imagines a dystopian republic named Gilead in which women have lost their rights and even their identities.

The original book ends with a section called Historical Notes, a 22nd-century academic symposium discussing the now-fallen Gilead and the ordeal of Offred, who had recorded her story on a set of cassette tapes. “Are there any questions?” is the final line.

“The roots of The Handmaid’s Tale are in audio — Offred’s story was recorded, not written, and even the ‘Historical Notes’ are a voice — so I was excited to extend the story for Audible with additional material meant specifically to be heard,” Atwood said in a statement.

“The Handmaid’s Tale ends with ‘Are there any questions?’ With this new special audio edition, I’ve added the questions and answers that I think the people at that symposium, occurring in 2195, might ask.”

Atwood’s prize-winning novel was first published in 1985, but has returned to bestseller charts as part of a wave of works on the loss of democracy that has sold strongly since the election of Donald Trump as president. A TV adaptation, released through the Hulu streaming service, is scheduled for release April 26.