While these Laws do directly affect our four protagonists in fundamental ways, everyday life keeps rattling along. Setting the novel in Salem, Oregon, with a population of about 150,000 only normalises things further. It takes very little effort to imagine an America where abortion is illegal, where IVF and the freezing of eggs has been banned (though freezing sperm is still OK, which speaks volumes as to the real target of the Laws) and where only a mother and father can adopt, single parents need not apply (it’s never made clear whether same-sex couples can adopt). Ron Charles (book reviewer for the Washington Post and a favourite critic of mine) gets it right when he says that it’s the ordinariness of Red Clocks that makes it so disturbing. This excerpt refers to the day 39 States ratified the 28th Amendment to the Constitution making abortion illegal.

The Mender (her name is Gin) also treads a well-worn path in as much as she stands in for the wise woman (people call her a witch behind her back) who provides alternative (natural) medicines to women who can’t afford to buy drugs or where no legal option exists.

Matilda is pregnant and wants to abort, a near impossible exercise in an America that has banned the practice (she considers throwing herself down a flight of stairs) while Susan desires couple counselling with her husband (who teaches at the same school as Ro). The Daughter’s story (her name is Matilda) and The Wife’s story (her name is Susan) are compelling but far more familiar. Ro’s story – as presented by Zumas – isn’t something I’ve seen portrayed with this much attention to detail in a fictional context. I’ve focussed quite a bit on The Biographer because her desire to be a mother and her infertility issues hit close to home. The Mender, though, doesn’t prescribe drugs… at least not of the synthesised in a lab variety: Ro Stephens (The Biographer) visits The Mender who, aside from tending her goats, also provides gynaecological examinations. It should come as no surprise as to who is writing the biography. Between each chapter is a fifth female voice, small excerpts from a biography of Eivør Mínervudottír, a 19th Century polar explorer (though not based on an actual person). We begin with The Biographer – who, as noted above, wishes to become pregnant – we then meet The Mender – who lives on her own with two goats in the middle of nowhere – followed by The Daughter – who loses her virginity in the back of a car – and finally The Wife – who has an important question to ask her husband that she keeps putting off. The novel provides us with four female viewpoints that alternate (more or less) sequentially. Having skimmed the back cover copy – not something I generally do – I know that Red Clocks is set in an America (Oregon to be precise) where abortion and in-vitro fertilisation is illegal, and embryos are granted a right to life and liberty.

Red clocks zumas