Before anyone has even gotten a chance to put it on their Goodreads “Want to Read” list, Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, a sequel to the now-iconic Handmaid’s Tale, has already racked up acclaim. The Testaments claims a spot on the 2019 Man Booker Prize short list, alongside newcomers and heavyweights alike. The novel isn’t out in the United States and Britain until next week, September 10. Salman Rushdie and his novel, Quichotte, have also made the list, making this the author’s fifth appearance. He won in 1981 for Midnight’s Children and in 1983 earned a special Best of Bookers prize for the same title. The other short-listed novels are Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport; Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other, a mix of prose and poetry; An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma; and Elif Shafak’s 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. The short list was whittled down from the long list’s 13 books, which included Oyinkan Braithwaite’s debut novel, My Sister, the Serial Killer. The winner will be announced during a ceremony in London on October 14. They’ll receive about $61,000 and international acclaim for their work in fiction. Not too shabby.
