Book Review: Outlawed by Anna North
This review was originally published on the AU review in January 2021 Outlawed Anna North Weidenfeld & Nicolson (Hachette Australia), 2021 There are few things that will turn a woman to becoming an outlaw faster than the threat of being hanged as a witch. So it is for Ada, the protagonist of Anna North's latest novel, Outlawed . Described as a mash up of The Handmaid's Tale with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Outlawed takes place in 'the year of our Lord, 1894' in an America which is like the one we know, and not. After a Great Flu has decimated the population, fertility is prized above all else, with women who are able to bear healthy babies earning themselves privileged statuses in society- though still not above the men. Women who have had multiple children are permitted to leave abusive husbands. Women who have had five or more children are left largely alone. But women who cannot conceive- women who are deemed barren- are witches and are blam...