Review of Larger than an Orange by Lucy Burns

1 in 3 UK women will have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old (British Pregnancy Advisory Service), this fact and the recent news around abortion laws in Texas shows that the conversation around abortion remains increasingly important. Lucy Burns navigates the complexity of politics and personal experience in this lyrical debut that consists in part of diary, part prose poem and literary collage. Larger Than An Orange details a young woman’s experience of abortion from just before her first doctor's appointment to over a year later. 

The protagonist is a complex character, someone who has always considered herself pro-choice but who, in the aftermath of her abortion, finds herself consumed by pro-life propaganda online. She finds herself compulsively counting the list of people who know about the abortion and kept awake at night by researching the procedure over and over again in painstaking detail. Burns takes us spiralling through the protagonist’s conflicting thoughts whilst writing unflinchingly about what is happening to her body. Raw, intimate and honest, this is a debut that introduces Burns as a poignant new writer carving a space for nuanced and brave storytelling.

Review by Abi.

Larger than an Orange was published on 23/09/21 by Chatto & Windus.