The Handmaid’s Tale
Atwood unveils sequel to award-winnng novel
MARGARET Atwood released the much-anticipated sequel to her awa rd-winning 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale on Tuesday, with The Testaments s e t to be c ome a s i mi l a r smash.
A ter r i f y i ng, misog y nist ic dystopia set in t he US nort heast in t he near f ut ure, The Handmaid’s Tale ha s been turned into a major television series and has become a femi nist ra l ly i ng poi nt for t he #MeToo generation.
Fa n s f locke d t o Waterstones’ f lagship bookstore in Piccad i l ly, cent ra l London, where At wood, 79, read from her new novel to around 400 av id followers who could get t hei r ha nds on t he book at midnight.
“It’s very accurate with what’s going [on] at the moment, where the world is heading and that’s kind of scary,” said 27-year-old Melisa Kumas, from the Netherlands but living in London, who wore a red handmaid’s outfit.
“It may be a bit of a warning to t he people.”
The sequel has already been nominated for the 2019 Booker Prize, one of t he Englishspea k ing world’s most prestigious litera r y awards.
Its predecessor, which was nominated for the 1986 Booker Pr i ze, was t ur ned i nto a film in 1990, an opera in 2000, and an award-winning television drama series, which first aired in 2017.
The show has boosted sales of t he novel, which has shifted eight million copies worldwide in English a lone.
Novel set 15 years on
In the original novel, the US has become t he Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian religious state where women are sexua lly subjugated.
More than 15 years on from the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the oppressive theocratic regime maintains its grip on power, but there are signs that it is beginning to rot from wit hin.
The lives of t hree radica lly different women converge in t he novel.
Two, Agnes and Daisy, grew up i n t he f i r st generat ion since the new order took over, whi le a t h i rd, Au nt Lyd ia, w ield s power t h roug h t he r ut h less accu mulat ion a nd deploy ment of secrets.
Aunt Lydia was a character in The Handmaid’s Tale, while Agnes and Daisy also cropped up. They are the daughters of the first novel’s protagonist and narrator June, who goes under the slave name Offred.
When the new stor y begins, Agnes lives in Gilead, while her sister lives in neighbouring Canada and is appalled by t he hu ma n r ig ht s a bu s e s being perpetrated across the border.
But t he t hi rd na r rator i n particular holds the reader in suspense – the Machiavellian leader of the Aunts – the group of women re sponsible for t r a i n i ng a nd pol ic i ng t he handmaids.
The reader d iscovers her past as a free woman and her t ra nsformation into a mons t er t h roug h her su r v iv a l instinct in t he face of t y ra nnical men, and her aspiration for power to get her revenge.
Feminist symbolism
Ca nad ia n w r iter At wood took more than three decades to create t he sequel, inspired by quest ions a sked by her readers about the characters in t he f irst book.
“Thirt y-f ive years is a long time to think about possible a ns wers, a nd t he a ns wers have changed as societ y itself has changed,” Atwood wrote in t he novel’s ack nowledgements.
“Countries, including the United States, are under more stresses now than they were three decades ago.”
T he T V adapt at ion ha s brought The Handmaid’s Tale to a new audience.
The handmaids’ white hats and red dresses have become a symbol of feminist struggles such as abortion and women’s rights campaigns in countries such as Argentina, Hungar y, Ireland and Poland.
In the US, they have become an emblem of the anti-Trump and #MeToo movements.
Debbie Wythe, 57, a ca rer f rom Wok i ng, sout hwest of L ondon, is a new fa n who came especia lly for the book launch.
“I just want to get my hands on it. I love books, to touch and smell it! I hope there is a happy conclusion in a way. I want to be hopeful and optimistic.”