Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 06/01/2020 *Starred Review* The adventurous spirit of Anne-France Dautheville is distilled in this arresting ode to her life, though it’s only in the back matter that her name is revealed. It begins in Paris, 1973, with “a girl” gripped by wanderlust and a wish to write about the world, so she packs her motorcycle’s saddlebags—the detailed spread of their contents, from lipstick to pliers, is a treat—and hits the road. Wonder, awe, and bravery are paramount in her ensuing travels, which include visits to Canada, Afghanistan, India, and Turkey. In fact, she becomes the first woman to travel around the world on a motorcycle—another piece of information reserved for the back matter. Powerfully understated, the story reveals Dautheville as a girl who can. A girl unafraid of hard work or of taking a fall. She defies conventions and gender norms through her choices, namely showing the world what a girl is capable of. These acts are spectacularly framed in Morstad’s illustrations, which favor dark pencil-and-ink drawings on saturated backdrops ranging from ocher to orchid, periwinkle to peach. Her spreads of Dautheville beneath the northern lights and later in silhouette aboard a train traveling at sunset are particular showstoppers. On more subtle display is the goodness Dautheville finds in people everywhere she travels, effectively demonstrating the beauty of cultures different from our own. Women in Focus: The 19th in 2020 - Copyright 2020 Booklist.