Atwood's The Testaments sells more than 250,000 copies in UK, says Vintage

Margaret Atwood's The Testaments (Chatto & Windus) has sold more than 250,000 copies in the UK across all formats, Vintage has said. 

The Booker-shortlisted sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, published on 10th September, has topped the hardback fiction chart for a fourth consecutive week and is the biggest hardback fiction title of the year selling 179,175 copies in hardback through Nielsen BooKScan's TCM in its first four weeks on sale in the UK. Vintage says The Testaments has sold more than a quarter of a million copies in the UK across all formats, meaning that audio and e-book editions have totalled over 70,000 copies. 

Vintage has said The Testaments audiobook is the fastest-selling Penguin Random House audiobook of 2019 so far. It was also top of The Bookseller's e-book ranking for two weeks and was Audible's September number one. 

Becky Hardie, deputy publishing director at Chatto & Windus, said: "It’s incredible to have reached this 250,000 milestone already and to see our phenomenal first week followed up by such strong continuing sales across all formats."

In its first week, The Testaments soared into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, with 103,177 print copies sold through Nielsen BookScan's TCM, marking Atwood's first ever overall UK number one. 

Atwood, who travelled to London for the Waterstones midnight launch to celebrate publication day and a major publicity campaign featuring a global press conference and special in conversation event at the National Theatre last month, will return to London this weekend ahead of the Booker Prize winner announcement on Monday 14th October.

Hardie added: "We’re looking forward to welcoming Margaret back to London, after her triumphant launch here a month ago, for the Booker and the event with the other shortlisted authors at Southbank on Sunday."

Overall Atwood has sold 3.07 million books for £24.65m in the UK since 1998, with The Handmaid’s Tale’s 1996 edition her bestseller at 633,120 copies sold. Her 2000 Booker winner, The Blind Assassin, is second with 466,064 copies sold in paperback and 69,808 in hardback. The Handmaid’s Tale has just surpassed one million copies sold across all (print) editions, although this does include GCSE reading guides and York Notes. The 1996 edition has sold 27,647 copies since the release of The Testaments, a 154% jump in volume compared to the four weeks before.