The Testaments: The Sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale

Still, I wanted to believe; indeed I longed to; and, in the end, how much of belief comes from longing?

I did try, later in the week. But the idea was too unthinkable—praying to a woman—so I stopped.

“Most likely it is minor, or perhaps even imaginary, as so many of these female complaints prove to be.”

Arms covered, hair covered, skirts down to the knee before you were five and no more than two inches above the ankle after that, because the urges of men were terrible things and those urges needed to be curbed.

Aunt Lise taught us the basics of interior decorating, though the final choices about the style of our homes would of course be made by our husbands.

Maybe I was too old to ever learn it, I thought. Maybe it was like fine embroidery: you had to start young; otherwise you would always be clumsy.

During my legal career my body had been merely a vehicle for propelling me from one achievement to the next,

The unfortunate girl was found wandering the streets in despair, since the map was inaccurate and the Mayday contacts turned out not to exist.

But the body has its twitches, which it can be humiliating as well as rewarding to obey. No lasting harm was done to me, some pleasure was both given and received, and none of these individuals took their swift dismissal from my life as a personal affront.