#The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

[mayangelus]

“At the beginning of the next period I am about to describe, I must have been eight at first, or possibly nine. I can remember these events but not my exact age. It’s hard to remember calendar dates, especially since we did not have calendars. But I will continue on in the best way I can.

My name at that time was Agnes Jemima. Agnes meant «lamb»,” said my mother, Tabitha. She would say a poem:

Little lamb, who made thee?Dost thou know who made thee?

There was more of this, but I have forgotten it.

As for Jemima, that name came from a story in the Bible. Jemima was a very special little girl because her father, Job, was sent bad luck by God as part of a test, and the worst part of it was that all Job’s children were killed. All his sons, all his daughters: killed! It sent shudders through me every time I heard about it. It must have been terrible, what Job felt when he was told that news.”

—The Testaments, Margaret Atwood.

[quotespile]

You’d be surprised how quickly the mind goes soggy in the absence of other people. One person alone is not a full person: we exist in relation to others. I was one person: I risked becoming no person.

Margaret Atwood, The Testaments

[flowerytale]

Margaret Atwood, from The Testaments

[mournfulroses]

Margaret Atwood, from "The Testaments," originally published in September 2019

[litsnaps]

[derangedrhythms]

[…] you’re only a wish, a possibility, a phantom.

Margaret Atwood, from ‘The Testaments’

[eva-eyre]

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

[eggwhiteswithspinach]

I wonder what it would be like for an adolescent to see themselves more directly in the sequel, than for then 16-year-old me, to wonder what it would be like to be the adult main character, not truly understanding the intricacies of motherhood or relationships, or survival. I wonder now, what stories and text-to-self connections this new addition will add to the world.

#quotes

[escapeintothepages]

“Being able to read and write did not provide answers to all questions. It led to other questions, and then to others.”

The Testaments, Margaret Atwood

[haveyoureadthispoll]

When the van door slammed on Offred's future at the end of The Handmaid's Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her--freedom, prison or death. With The Testaments, the wait is over. Margaret Atwood's sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead. In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades. "Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in." --Margaret Atwood

[outragedtortilla]

You don’t believe the sky is falling until a chunk of it falls on you.

#Margaret Atwood (The Testaments)

[quotespile]

No one wants to die... But some people don’t want to live in any of the ways that are allowed.

Margaret Atwood, The Testaments

[mylifeincharingcrossroad]

[cichocicho]

‘The Testaments’ by Margaret Atwood

[litsnaps]

[derangedrhythms]

She was an absence, a gap inside me.

Margaret Atwood, from ‘The Testaments’