The Testaments

After her most famous work of speculative fiction, The Handmaid’s Tale, was adapted for a popular television series in 2017, Atwood wrote a sequel of sorts and a book that, to me, is more interesting and engaging than the remarkable story it builds on.

It takes the form of a truth-and-reconciliation investigation of the theocratic coup that turned the U.S. into the Republic of Gilead. It turns the epilogue to The Handmaid’s Tale—often criticized as a Wizard of Oz-like cop-out at the end of an otherwise unflinching novel—into the launching point for a text that digs in much deeper,… show more.

Atwood has written extensively about the relationship between humans and nature in many of her books, in many different forms. But I’ve chosen to highlight The Testaments because of the way Atwood explores the fallout of ideologies that stemmed from an environmental collapse. What Atwood does so brilliantly in her writing is continually revealing how human reaction to climate change can be as harmful as the mass ecological destruction and extinction itself. She serves up a cautionary tale for how our response—and our beliefs—will play a large role in what kind of changes define the future.