title: The Testaments by: Atwood, Margaret published: 2019-09-10 read: 2020-02 preview

The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments are similar, or rather, together form one story: the fall of the Gilead society. More than fifteen years after The Handmaid’s Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead begins to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.

The story is told by Aunt Lydia, whom one could have known from the previous novel; Agnes, a young woman living in Gilead; and Daisy, a young woman living in Canada. The latter have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third: Aunt Lydia.

Aunt Lydia tells her story through the Ardua Hall Holograph, a manuscript she wrote, containing testimonies by the other two.

How is Gilead brought to its end? Aunt Lydia describes her rise to power within Gilead. Before the coup that brought down the US, she was a judge. She tells of her arrest and her experience of being held in a stadium where she watched as members of the new regime executed other professional women. As the days passed, women were replacing men as the executioners.

One night, men came for Aunt Lydia and escorted her to a man named Commander Judd. He asked her if she would cooperate with the regime. She hesitates, gets solitary confinement, upon which she cooperates. Knowing that she would have to participate in an execution of other women, Aunt Lydia decided to do whatever necessary to survive and take down Gilead from within. Alongside three other women – Elizabeth, Helena, and Vidala – she became one of the Founders of the Aunts.

And the other two?

Fifteen years after the The Handmaid’s Tale takes place, a girl named Agnes Jemima grows up in Boston as the adopted daughter of Commander Kyle and his wife Tabitha. Agnes has a loving relationship with Tabitha, who later dies of ill health. Agnes and her classmates Becka and Shunammite attend an elite preparatory school for the daughters of Commanders, where they are taught to run a household but not to become literate.

Daisy is a young woman living in Canada who learns she was born in Gilead. Daisy grows up believing she’s an ordinary Canadian citizen until she learns that she was smuggled out of Gilead as a baby.

With The Testaments, Margaret Atwood gives so much more insight in Gilead. The women are forced to come to terms with their role, as it is forced upon them, and how to deal with that and conscience.

As the Handmaid’s Tale, a beautiful book, and a highly recommended read.