Fresh details have emerged about Margaret Atwood’s follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale with the narrators of the new book being revealed.
The Testaments, which is due to be published simultaneously around the world on Tuesday, has been the subject of a security operation to prevent details of the plot leaking out.
Five watermarked manuscripts were delivered earlier this year to members of the Booker Prize jury who were told they would be held liable if their copy was leaked.
Among plot details revealed in a New York Times review today are that Offred, the main character in the first book, barely features.
The story is told from the viewpoint of two of her daughters and Aunt Lydia, the cruel enforcer of the first novel.
Critic Michiko Kakutani calls the book a “kind of spy thriller”, praising Atwood’s “sheer assurance as a storyteller”.
