Current Events & Trends | January 2020 | Rebecca Rego Barry

Special Edition of Atwood’s Testaments Supports Bird Conservation

Courtesy of the Pelee Island Bird Observatory

A special edition of Margaret Atwood’s 2019 Booker Prize-winning novel, The Testaments, the sequel to her dystopian blockbuster, The Handmaid’s Tale, was produced to raise funds for bird conservation.

Atwood fans may recall that she and her late husband, the author Graeme Gibson, helped to found the Pelee Island Bird Observatory (PIBO) in Ontario, Canada, in 2003. PIBO is a non-profit that researches and promotes the conservation of birds, and Atwood is currently the group’s honorary chairperson. This exclusive slip-cased edition of three hundred, featuring Atwood’s signature, decorative endpapers, and hidden ephemera, will only be available through PIBO.

Courtesy of the Pelee Island Bird Observatory

Said Atwood: “I am so happy to have been able to work on this very, very special, very, very limited edition of The Testaments in aid of PIBO, with the invaluable help of McClelland and Stewart, my publishers. The designer, Kelly Hill, has done a spectacular job, and Jared Bland, the Publisher, entered into the full spirit of Gilead with alarming alacrity. Leaked documents from inside Gilead can be yours, plus bird protection! A total package!”

So far, PIBO supporters and rare book libraries, including the Fisher Library at the University of Toronto, have gotten first dibs on the edition, but according to executive director Suzanne Friemann, interested buyers may reach out through their contact form. The price is $1,500 CAD, but will go up, we're told, after the initial offering. 

Check out this short clip in which Atwood introduces the edition:

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