In the US, the debate about medical termination of pregnancy rages amidst fears of the government rolling back on women’s rights. The control of women’s choice has become such a politically fraught issue that elections hinge on the candidate being pro or anti-abortion.

Increasingly, in many developed countries, there is also the matter of elder care—older people used to be looked after in joint families, when now, in the urban nuclear set-up, senior citizens are either neglected or seen as a strain on resources. Since, for a variety of reasons, women tend to outlive men, they are the ones bearing the brunt of being in a society in which respect for elders is fast diminishing.

The problems of ageing as well as every society’s—whether progressive or conservative—control of female bodily autonomy converge in Laurie Frankel’s satire, Enormous Wings.

Pepper Mill, a 77-year-old woman who lives alone after her divorce and relishes her independence, is involved in a minor car accident. The stranger whose car she bumped into tears up her driving licence, saying she is too old to drive. Her well-meaning children (daughters Darcy and Alice, and son Max) swoop in and decide that she is not capable of living by herself and, over her protests, shift her to the Vista View retirement home. And suddenly, from living the way she wants to, after completing all her responsibilities as a wife, mother, and popular teacher, she is pushed into a situation where she is under the supervision of staff, friendly and caring though they may be.

Like Richard Osman’s delightful The Thursday Murder Club series, also set in a luxurious........

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