The Testaments
2019
by Margaret Atwood
The Testaments, Margaret Atwood's highly anticipated sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, unfolds the darkly compelling story of Gilead more than fifteen years after Offred's ambiguous end. With The Testaments, Atwood opens the innermost workings of Gilead and brings the iconic story to a dramatic conclusion through the voices of three female narrators.
Two of the narrators, Daisy and Agnes, have grown up as part of the first generation in the new order of Gilead. They are joined by a third voice, Aunt Lydia, who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets. Each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.
As the regime of Gilead begins to rot from within, these three women's lives converge in a potentially explosive manner. The Testaments answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades, offering a harrowing and exhilarating exploration of resistance against oppression.
Girl, Woman, Other
2019
by Bernardine Evaristo
From one of Britain's most celebrated writers of color, a magnificent portrayal of the intersections of identity among an interconnected group of Black British women.
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years. Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years. Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.