Reading order
The Handmaid's Tale reading order
1
2- 8.28.2 / 104,479 ratings
- Score
- 2 volumes
- Volumes
- 1985–2019
- Published
- about 16 h
- Reading time
- Completed
- Status
- Dystopian#4
- Genre
Quick answer
Start withThe Handmaid's Tale
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Publication order
2 volumes1985–2019Completed
- Two books, thirty-four years apart, and the gap is the point.
- The Handmaid's Tale ends on a deliberate ambiguity — a lecture, centuries later, about whether any of it can be verified — and Atwood left it there from 1985 until 2019.
- The Testaments answers some of what the first book refuses to, follows three narrators instead of one, and was written after the television series had made Gilead something readers already pictured.
- Read the first alone if you want the book as it stood for a generation; read both if you want the answers.
Every volume in order
Read: 0 of 2
Order checked by hand · Order and years: Wikidata (CC0). Spotted an error? Tell us. · Data updated October 29, 2026
Frequently asked questions
Which Handmaid's Tale book is the best?
By reader score, The Handmaid's Tale (8.2/10). The lowest-rated is The Testaments (8.1/10).
Which The Handmaid's Tale book is the longest?
“The Testaments” is the longest at 502 pages; the shortest is “The Handmaid's Tale” with 352 pages.
What should I read after The Handmaid's Tale?
Other series by Margaret Atwood: Positron, Canongate Myth Series, MaddAddam Series.
