Atwood writing ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ sequel, out in 2019

NEW YORK – Thanks to public demand, and a certain American president, Margaret Atwood is writing a sequel to her million-selling “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

“The Testaments” will be published next September by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, the publisher announced Wednesday. The book is set 15 years after the final scene of Offred, narrator of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Atwood’s novel about a dystopian society in the imagined land of Gilead was a bestseller when first published in 1985 and was back on the charts after Donald Trump’s election in 2016. The novel is also the basis for an acclaimed miniseries on Hulu.

Atwood, a Canadian author, said in a statement that the sequel was inspired by readers’ questions about Gilead and by the “world we’ve been living in.”