Vivid, bawdy and bitter' (The Times), Pat Barker's first novel shows the women o
f Union Street, young and old, meeting the harsh challeges of poverty and surviv
al in a precarious world. There's Kelly, at eleven, neglected and independent, d
ealing with a squalid rape; Dinah, knocking on sixty and still on the game; Joan
ne, not yet twenty, not yet married, and already pregnant; Old Alice, welcoming
her impending death; Muriel helplessly watching the decline of her stoical husba
nd. And linking them all, watching over them all, mother to half the street, is
fiery, indomitable Iris.
