State Champ

Plum (Strawberry Fields) delivers a mordant and morbid narrative of post–Roe v. Wade America, centered on a young woman who stages a hunger strike at a shuttered abortion clinic somewhere in the Midwest. After an abortion provider is sentenced to 12 years in prison for violating a new state law prohibiting abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, former receptionist Angela goes on a hunger strike in support of the doctor, known only as Dr. M. While sequestered alone in the clinic, Angela speaks often by phone with her ex-boyfriend John, a newspaper reporter, pushing him to break the story of her action. A colleague of John’s ends up writing the piece, which the paper buries. Angela also seeks help in vain from her aunt, a city councilwoman, who chides her for trespassing and argues that Dr. M was legally prosecuted. As the weeks pass, Angela’s condition grows dire. The distressing tale is buoyed by Angela’s incisive narration and frank humor, such as her quip that the pro-life “whiners” who gather outside the clinic to oppose her campaign are “like a sorority [that] had spent 20 years braiding each other’s hair too tight while driving up the costs of each other’s weddings.” Readers won’t want to put this down. (May)