--- title: Margaret Atwood Is Writing a Sequel to The Handmaid's Tale description: Margaret Atwood confirmed on Twitter that she writing a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale called The Testaments. canonical: https://time.com/5465514/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-sequel-testaments/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-28T16:12:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:07:17.146Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Margaret Atwood Confirms She's Writing a Sequel to 'The Handmaid's Tale' og:description: Atwood said the new book will be called The Testaments og:url: https://time.com/5465514/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-sequel-testaments/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78f91a0722709e0a/69894019e76ad258ed6339f3/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-sequel-testaments.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: 2018 Hammer Museum Gala In The Garden - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Margaret Atwood Confirms She's Writing a Sequel to 'The Handmaid's Tale' twitter:description: Atwood said the new book will be called The Testaments twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78f91a0722709e0a/69894019e76ad258ed6339f3/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-sequel-testaments.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Margaret Atwood Confirms She's Writing _The Handmaid's Tale_ Sequel, Partly Inspired by 'the World We've Been Living In' > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Margaret Atwood and Elisabeth Moss Discuss The Handmaid’s Tale [Watch (HLS stream): Margaret Atwood and Elisabeth Moss Discuss The Handmaid’s Tale](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QAJVeTx0.m3u8) (3:01)  _Published 2017-04-11. Margaret Atwood and Elizabeth Moss discuss the new Hulu series based on the novel, "The Handmaid's Tale."_ by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Nov 28, 2018 4:12 PM UTC by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Nov 28, 2018 4:12 PM UTC It’s official: Margaret Atwood confirmed she’s writing a sequel to _The Handmaid’s Tale_ more than 30 years after the original dystopian story was published. Called _The Testaments_, the sequel is set 15 years after Offred’s last scene in _The Handmaid’s Tale,_ and is narrated by three female characters. The new book comes out on Sept. 10, 2019, with a first printing of 500,000 copies. Atwood confirmed the news to excited fans in a tweet Wednesday morning. > [](https://twitter.com/MargaretAtwood/status/1067778206642683906) “Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book,” Atwood said in a note addressed to readers. “Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.” _The Handmaid’s Tale,_ which depicts the United States after it collapses into a totalitarian regime where fertile women are forced to become “handmaids” for high-ranking men and their barren wives due to a plummeting birth rate, [soared on the best-selling lists](http://time.com/collection-post/4925657/margaret-atwood-and-elisabeth-moss/) in the wake of the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump and a TV adaptation of the book on Hulu. While the book was first published in 1985, its depiction of violent oppression of women, environmental issues and Americans fleeing the country in search of a better life has resonated among a new generation of readers. A third season of the TV adaptation is currently in production. _“The Handmaid’s Tale_ is always relevant, just in different ways in different political contexts,” Atwood told [TIME](http://time.com/collection-post/4925657/margaret-atwood-and-elisabeth-moss/) last year. “Not that much has changed.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] I'm curious what you think ultimately the book is about for you. I think it's about a totalitarian society in America, the it would likely be. [ LAUGH ] I was asleep before, that's how we let it happen. When they slaughtered Congress we didn't wake up. When they blame terrorists and suspended the constitution, we didn't wake up then either. Now I'm awake. When we first met, when you talked a little bit about that the first kernel of the idea was to how you would control women by Shutting down their bank accounts. Ladies, I have to let you go. It's the law now. If you felt they should be back into the home, how would you get them back into the home if they didn't wanna go? [ UNKNOWN ] criminal mind always wonders how you would do such a thing. You told me that everything that happened in the handmaids tale had happened. Somewhere. Somewhere. Yeah - >> Somewhere at some time . >> Yeah . >> Yeah . >> You girls will serve the leaders and their barren wives. You will bare children for them . >> A lot of the work that I do tends to be these strong complicated women. And I often get asked by interviewers. Do you gravitate towards quote and unquote feminist roles which is a question that I almost struggled to answer. << Feminism when we use that word, I always like to know, what do you mean by it ?. What are we talking about ?. Yeah. So if the person can describe what them mean by the word because there are this many different meanings. Then we can talk about if I am one of those or not. I'm gonna use that actually because I find myself sometimes getting slightly tripped up because I am a feminist. Because you don't know what they mean. And so far as? And so far as I believe in human rights. And women are human. And women are human, but that's not the only thing about it. That's not why I love it. That's not why I did it. So yes and no, really. You only wanted to make the world better. Better? Better never means better for everyone. I remember one of the things when I first started talking to them about making the show was the idea of, is this something that could be plausible, is this something the public is going to buy into. And then unfortunately, six months later, it became a hell of a lot more plausible At the [ UNKNOWN ] some people were saying Margaret how could you suggest How could you suggest that we would ever do such a thing? This would ever happen, right? Yeah, so I don't hear that much. No. Anymore either. [ LAUGH ] Do you feel like there is one thing that the average woman or average person can do to sort of prevent. Well, they might vote just to begin with. That would help, wouldn't it? [ LAUGH ] Voting helps. [ LAUGH ] Yeah. 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