In Zumas’s all-too-familiar dystopia set in a small Oregon coastal town, Roe v. Wade has been overturned. The narrative explores the complexity of childbearing — both the desire for and not for — and the reduction of a woman’s identity to such choices, braiding together the perspectives of a pregnant teen, a single teacher who dreams of motherhood, a skilled herbalist and gynecologist, and an overburdened wife and mother of two. But Zumas’s characters are sharp-witted, funny, and fully realized in raw, lyrical prose — in other words, anything but reductive. Highly recommended for book groups.
–Marissa, Grass Roots Books & Music, Corvallis, OR
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