The Testaments: A Novel

"Robin: Obviously the book is totally fascinating as a print book. What happened with the audiobook is that because of the Hulu adaptation, a lot of the actors who were in the Hulu program were used for the audiobook production. That puts The Testaments in a different category, in that it will probably attract people who might not have thought of trying the audiobook. They see the actors that they know from the Hulu series and think, ‘Wow, that sounds interesting. How would that be?’ So I think the audiobook of The Testaments really opened the door to new listeners with this production. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter Mary: Yes, and this brings to light one of the criteria for this category. When you have awards, you have to have criteria to help the judges pick out points of quality in audiobooks. The criteria for Audiobook of the Year are that it’s a title that not only will be a benchmark for excellence in production, but will also bring new listeners into the format. The idea of a celebrity narrator, or having the actors from the TV show that listeners can picture in their head as they listen, might make that first-time audiobook listener more comfortable with the format and hook them for life."

"What we saw in it is that it is a completely standalone, independent novel. If you read The Handmaid’s Tale , it will satisfy some of your need for understanding what happened next. If you haven’t—and incredibly, there are people who haven’t read it—it just gives you an extremely savage and exhilarating look at contemporary life and its most alarming manifestations. Atwood manages to set her own bar very high and get over it. That’s a hell of a thing for a book of which a lot is expected. You’d think! Part of the challenge is reading it again in the context of the publication hype and expectation, the backlash, the whole nine-ring circus. I think we were very lucky to read it first before all that started. Atwood plays with thriller conventions and our expectations of drama to pull our focus, always, onto her subject matter. It’s phenomenal storytelling and inspiration."