The Low Road: A Novel

By Katharine Quarmby. Unbound, 2023. 400 pages. $22.95/hardcover; $15.99/eBook.

The Low Road by Katharine Quarmby, a Quaker at Hampstead Meeting in London, is told from the perspective of Hannah Tyrell, a “base-born” woman navigating the dangers of being without means or male protection in early nineteenth-century England. In Hannah’s words, “Every choice we have just sets a new trap, teeth ready to snap shut.”

Based on a true story, Quarmby’s first-person narrative exposes the dearth of choices available to impoverished women in the Regency Era. While she is still a girl, the religious authorities in her hometown exile Hannah for her mother’s perceived sins and for her own petty thievery. In London, she becomes an “object” in a refuge for the destitute, where she meets Annie Simpkins. Romantic love blossoms out of mutual need for comfort and connection as both are trained for a life in service. Hannah’s efforts to shield Annie from sexual violence and dehumanization lead to their arrest and imprisonment in the infamous Newgate and Millbank Prisons. Ultimately, they are transported to an Australian penal colony as punishment for their crimes.

The Low Road is organized into three parts. Part one takes place in rural Norfolk in England, part two in London, and part three near Newcastle on the east coast of Australia. Quarmby’s descriptions of flora, fauna, and geography in each location are evocative, engaging multiple senses. Stylistically, The Low Road reads like memoir, with relatively little dialogue.

Readers interested in a narrative description of the penal system targeted by Quaker reform efforts will find The Low Road illuminating. Stark descriptions of Hannah’s time in prison—such as being marched outside to relieve herself in already befouled snow or having to choose between eating rotten food or going hungry—puts a human face to past injustices that are often treated more academically. Friends will recognize the real-life Quaker prison reformer Elizabeth “Betsy” Fry, who makes two cameos to offer material and spiritual comfort to Hannah and her fellow prisoners.

Against a backdrop of adversity, bright spots of kindness, love, and beauty shine through where they appear. In reading The Low Road, I found myself drawn to the descriptions of sustaining relationships between and amongst women. While few of those friendships were developed in depth, they played a significant role in Hannah’s resilience and survival. From Fry, who trusts Hannah to hold her infant son, to Hannah’s final employer and friend who exhorts Hannah to “write down what you cannot say out loud,” women find ways of lifting each other up despite tragedy. Through those relationships, Hannah makes sense of her past and gains control of her future. The fictional memoir set out on the pages of The Low Road represents Hannah’s attempt to follow her friends’ advice and to reclaim what should have been hers all along—her story.

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Laura Barrosse-Antle lives in Washington, D.C., where she has been a high-school chemistry teacher at Sidwell Friends School for 13 years. She is an avid reader of fiction of all kinds and of nonfiction related to social justice and education.