📖 The Testaments

It's the early 2000s, and a radical political group named the Sons of Jacob are taking over the United States legislature. After staging the assassination of the US President and many Congress members, they establish a military dictatorship named the Republic of Gilead. The religion quickly spreads and becomes dominant. This dictatorship uses many Old Testament ideals, but particularly theonomy. Women's rights become heavily decreased, and they aren't allowed to read or write. Reproduction rights have become extremely low, and babies that do exist often come with birth defects in the elite societies. That's why sometimes lower-class women are chosen to become surrogates of elite ladies, only to have children. They are forced to wear a bonnet and long red gown, and change their names. They can only leave the house to go shopping, and are constantly monitored by the Eyes, or the equivalent of a police force. However, there are secrets hidden, with forged passports and secret rebel organizations brewing, even in the elite class. That was all fifteen years ago. The Testaments takes place after The Handmaid's Tale and tells the story from a new perspective, or perspectives. Lydia is a woman chosen after a long series of pain and suffering to become an Aunt. Aunts are a group of elite women that decide rules regarding Gilead's women. They also have privileges, like being able to read. In secret, Aunt Lydia is a mole planted by the Mayday resistance organization, to gather and send intel. A girl named Agnes is growing up in Boston with her father and mother. She attends school where she learns to be a homemaker, due to her father's status. Later on, her mother dies from an illness and her father remarries. However, Agnes is given files about some of Gilead's secrets involving her family and herself. She was the daughter of a handmaid, and she has a secret half-sister named Nicole who was smuggled into Canada by their mother (whose actions sound awfully similar to a certain protagonist of The Handmaid's Tale). Daisy, who is many years younger than Agnes, is growing up in Toronto with her parents Neil and Melanie. They run a clothes shop that is secretly a Mayday base used to transport children out of Gilead. After Neil and Melanie are murdered by Gilead's police force, Daisy is retrieved by Mayday's operatives. There, she learns that she is actually Nicole, and that she was originally from Gilead. Mayday sends Nicole on a mission to gather data about Gilead, and she is sent into it to live with a new family - Agnes's. Aunt Lydia, while visiting, identifies that the disguised Nicole is actually Nicole, and she reveals this to Agnes. She also reveals that she is a mole placed in Gilead, and she sends them on a mission of their own. After this, the story starts to deviate into the realm of espionage and human rights, with all three characters assuming their own different identities in many places at once. However, we get every person's view, since The Testaments is told in first person by the three people. I heavily recommend this book because it's an excellent sequel to an already amazing book. It wraps up the loose ends that we desired so much about what Gilead's fate would be, and it also gives some of the antagonists in The Handmaid's Tale their own story. At the end, this story is very bittersweet but so filled with hope. There's hope for everyone's survival, but the overarching view that every protagonist shares here is a hope for a better future - even if their own lives are at stake.

那是 21 世纪初,一个名为"基列之子"的激进政治团体正在接管美国立法机构。在策划暗杀美国总统和多名国会议员后,他们建立了一个名为"基列共和国"的军事独裁政权。这种宗教思想迅速传播并占据了统治地位。该政权运用了许多旧约圣经的教义,尤其是神权统治。女性权利被大幅削减,她们甚至不被允许阅读或书写。 生育率变得极低,而在精英阶层中,即便出生了婴儿,也往往带有先天缺陷。因此,一些底层女性被选为精英夫人们的代孕母亲,其唯一职能就是生育。她们被迫戴上软帽,穿上红色长袍,并更改姓名。她们只有在购物时才能出门,且时刻受到"眼线"(相当于警察部队)的监视。然而,即便是在精英阶层内部,也隐藏着伪造护照和秘密反叛组织等暗流。 以上都是十五年前的故事了。《遗嘱》的故事发生在《使女故事》之后,通过一个或多个全新的视角展开。丽迪亚(Lydia)在经历了一系列的痛苦与磨难后,被选为一名"伯母"。"伯母"是一群决定基列国女性规章制度的精英女性,她们拥有特权,比如可以阅读。秘密地,丽迪亚伯母其实是抵抗组织"五月天"植入的卧底,负责搜集并传递情报。 一个名叫艾格尼丝(Agnes)的女孩和父母一起在波士顿长大。由于父亲的地位,她在学校学习如何成为一名家庭主妇。后来,她的母亲因病去世,父亲再婚。然而,艾格尼丝得到了一些涉及她家庭及她自身的基列机密文件。她其实是一名使女的女儿,还有一个名叫妮可(Nicole)的亲生妹妹——妮可当年被她们的母亲偷渡到了加拿大(这位母亲的行为听起来与《使女故事》中的某位主角惊人地相似)。 黛西(Daisy)比艾格尼丝小很多岁,在多伦多与父母尼尔和梅兰妮一起生活。他们经营着一家服装店,而那其实是"五月天"用来将儿童偷运出基列国的秘密基地。在尼尔和梅兰妮被基列国的警察杀害后,黛西被"五月天"的特工接走。在那里,她得知自己其实就是妮可,且原本来自基列国。 "五月天"派遣妮可执行一项搜集基列国数据的任务,她被送回基列,并住进了一个新家庭——也就是艾格尼丝的家。丽迪亚伯母在访问时,认出了伪装后的妮可正是失踪的妮可,并将此告知了艾格尼丝。她还透露了自己是潜伏在基列国内部的卧底,并为她们安排了各自的任务。此后,故事开始转向间谍行动和人权抗争,三名角色在多地同时变换着不同的身份。由于《遗嘱》采用了三人的第一人称叙述,我们可以读到每个人的视角。 我强烈推荐这本书,因为它是那部优秀前作的完美续篇。它填补了我们渴望了解的关于基列国命运的悬念,同时也为《使女故事》中的一些反派角色赋予了属于他们自己的故事。故事的结局虽是苦乐参半,但充满了希望。每个人都在为生存而努力,而书中的主角们都共同怀揣着一个宏大的愿景——即便以生命为代价,也要争取一个更美好的未来。