MARGARET
ATWOOD
SAW IT ALL
COMING
The legendary author returns to the dystopian
world she created in The Handmaid’s Tale
BY LUCY FELDMAN
FIRSTS
margareT aTwood wanTs To know more abouT
The Bachelorette. We’re chatting in her publisher’s
office in Toronto when I mention the dating show
where 30-some men vie for the affection of a single
woman, all on camera. She has questions: “Why are
they even participating in this?” “What if they’re re-
jected?” “I’m wondering if she’s just pretending to
go along with it?”
There is an irony here, observing Atwood equate
the show to Sartre’s adage “Hell is other people” come
to life. She is, after all, known for a book that de-
scribes one of the most brutal mating rituals in the
canon. In her landmark 1985 novel, The Handmaid’s
Tale, a totalitarian theocracy has taken over the U.S.
in the midst of a fertility crisis. Offred, one of few
women who can still bear children, is forced to par-
ticipate in reproductive- slavery ceremonies in the
Republic of Gilead. Offred’s story ends with a noto-
riously ambiguous cliff-hanger: she steps into a van
that will take her either to fresh hell or to freedom.
For 34 years, Atwood, now 79, has deflected read-
ers’ questions about her protagonist’s fate. But on
Sept. 10, she will publish The Testaments, a new book
that promises to resolve that mystery and many more.