She was just quietly teaching history when it happened. Woke up one morning to a president-elect she hadn’t voted for.” On January fifteenth—in less than three months—this law, also known as Every Child Needs Two, take effect. Its mission: to restore dignity, strength, and prosperity to American families. I enjoyed Leni Zumas’ particular prose a whole lot and thought it added a nice layer of urgency and intimacy to an otherwise distant book. Her sentences are choppy but have a nice rhythm to them. This is getting billed as a dystopian novel to cash in on Handmaid hysteria, but it's really not that much of a stretch from our current environment, given that abortion access is being so severely curtailed in many states. The leaders of Zumas' world, though, have taken it a step farther and banned in-vitro fertilization and are about to ban adoption by single parents. These three laws complicate the lives of four women in rural Oregon: Ro, an unmarried biographer and high school teacher desperate to have a child despite her potential infertility; Mattie, a teenager who is stunned and frightened to realize that she is pregnant; Susan, the unhappy housewife and mother of two ill-behaved young children; and Gin, a natural healer who is looked at with skepticism by the townspeople who think of her as a witch.

I definitely did not start with political themes in mind. What I started out with were characters and particularly the idea of female friendship and all the ways it can be burdened by either envy or competition or difference or just having different experiences and not being able to share them” On January fifteenth—in less than three months—this law, also known as Every Child Needs Two, takes effect. Its mission: to restore dignity, strength, and prosperity to American families. Unmarried persons will be legally prohibited from adopting children. In addition to valid marriage licenses, all adoptions will require approval through a federally regulated agency, rendering private transactions criminal. (c) Ro/The Biographer is in her early 40s – an unmarried high school teacher she is unsuccessfully trying artificial insemination, knowing her adoption and fostering chances are disappearing. A note: I received my M.A. from Portland State (where Leni teaches) and while I do not know her personally, many of my M.F.A. colleagues speak highly of her.Unmarried persons will be legally prohibited from adopting children. In addition to valid marriage licenses, all adoptions will require approval through a federally regulated agency, rendering private transactions criminal.” I had heard about this novel as part of the speculation leading up to the 2018 Women’s Prize – and was surprised not to see it longlisted. My perception was that it was a dystopian and political novel – very much in the spirit of The Handmaid's Tale (or The Power). I love the plausibility of the world Leni Zumas has created here, it feels organic in a way that is scary and frustrating. Set in the not so distant future, reproductive rights have been severely limited: abortion is illegal in all and every circumstances (and in fact considered murder), in-vitro fertilization is unavailable, and soon adoption will only be possible for straight, married couples. Told from five different perspectives, Zumas shows the far-reaching consequences these changes to the law might have. Her world is plausible and aggrevating and often feels contemporary rather than speculative. I loved the interactions between the characters. How these characters see each other through their own wants and desires. How the childless Ro quietly seethes at the mother in Susan and yearns at the possibility in Mattie. Wrestling between her own self-interest and what Mattie needs. How Gin, the healer in the woods is understood by the women in the community. Those moments really shine for me. Four women navigate a world where reproductive rights are being chipped away. Their options are beginning to run out, both biologically and legally

Thirdly in being at heart more about relationships between women explored within a patriarchal/misogynistic world rather than just exploring the structure of that patriarchy; In less than three months .. [the] Every Child Needs Two [law] takes affect .. Unmarried persons will be legally prohibitedI went to find this book review for a news article link, but the entire review had been wiped! Maybe it was too long? I pieced it together again from Netgalley and a draft with quotes. I'm going to try to put my link section in the comments instead) It didn't make me more empathetic towards anyone I wasn't already empathetic towards. If you have negative feelings coming into the book, you'll probably have a negative feeling at the end. It works more as a call to action. It made me more aware of my own "splinters of glass" that distort my perspective.