False Dawn by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Used; Hardcover - Good; 1978 1st book club edition; dust jacket has some wear, foxing.

It is the turn of the twenty-first century. War, disease, and pollution have made the Earth nearly unfit for human habitation. In America, food is scarce, and what food remains is quickly confiscated by the Pirates - a murderous band of raiders determined to save themselves and to destroy the last stronghold of civilized human beings - the mutant population. 

One of these mutants, a woman name Thea, has eluded the Pirates for years. Armed only with a crossbow, her pride, and her common sense, she has been slowly making her way Eastward to Gold Lake - a legendary place of safety and enlightenment. Until one day she meets Evan Montague, a man who needs her help, a man who is also on the run from the Pirates, but for a different reason - he once led the Pirates himself and has now become their most bitter and most hunted enemy. 

Together, Thea and Evan trek across a dangerous and wasted California, hoping to survive the brutality of twenty-first-century life...and, perhaps, to find Eden before they die.