The Testaments

Published some 34 years after The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments is an insider story of Gilead from the perspective of the powerful, the enslaved, and the freedom fighters. Far less successful than the original, perhaps due to the long gap, perhaps due to it over-explaining something that was best left to the shuddering imagination. The first book read like a furious lightning strike, this more like a clever and luxurious exposition.