BESTSELLING AUTHOR MARGARET ATWOOD TELLS “CBS SUNDAY MORNING” THAT THE ATROCITIES DESCRIBED IN THE HANDMAID’S TALE AND ITS SEQUEL THE TESTAMENTS HAD TO HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE TO BE INCLUDED IN HER FICTION

BESTSELLING AUTHOR MARGARET ATWOOD TELLS “CBS SUNDAY MORNING” THAT THE ATROCITIES DESCRIBED IN THE HANDMAID’S TALE AND ITS SEQUEL THE TESTAMENTS HAD TO HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE TO BE INCLUDED IN HER FICTION

Atwood Tells Martha Teichner: “It’s Not Me Who Made This Stuff Up – The Human Race Made It Up – Unfortunately.”

Margaret Atwood, the bestselling author of The Handmaid’s Tale and the upcoming sequel, The Testaments, says she has a rule that the atrocities described in her books had to have happened in real life to be included in her fiction.

Atwood opens up about her craft, her career and the inspiration for her books in an interview with Martha Teichner for CBS SUNDAY MORNING to be broadcast Sunday, Sept. 8 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.

Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, in which handmaids are sex slaves forced to bear children for infertile couples among the power elite. It is set in Gilead, the totalitarian dystopia the United States has become after being taken over by religious zealots. The book was published in 1985 and became an Emmy-winning series for Hulu in 2017.

“It’s not me who made this stuff up,” Atwood tells Teichner. “The human race made it up, unfortunately.”

Asked if she meant for The Handmaid’s Tale to be a warning, Atwood says the intention doesn’t matter.

“It is a warning,” she says.

“Simply because I never have believed it can’t happen here,” she says. “I’ve never believed that. And – more and more people are joining me in that lack of belief.”

Cultural and political observers have noted the themes and concepts of the novel and the series were becoming fact.

Atwood tells Teichner she makes “educated guesses” about possibilities. “But I’m not a prophet,” she says. “And if I were any good at gambling I would, I would do that. Be a lot richer.”

Teichner talks with Atwood about her start in writing, the television show based on The Handmaid’s Tale and about the highly anticipated, long-awaited sequel, The Testaments, which hits Sept. 10.

What can she say about the sequel?

“So we know from book one that – that Gilead ends, but we don’t know how,” Atwood says. “But we’re a little closer to knowing how.”

CBS SUNDAY MORNING is broadcast Sundays (9:00-10:30 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. Rand Morrison is the executive producer.

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