Union Street Av Pat Barker

<p><b>'Vivid, bawdy and bitter' <i>THE TIMES </i></b><br><b><br>'A first-rate first novel . . . pungent, raunchy dialogue . . . passages of fine understated wit' IVAN GOLD, <i>NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW </i></b><br><b><br>Pat Barker's first novel shows the women of Union Street, young and old, meeting the harsh challeges of poverty and survival in a precarious world.<br><br></b>There's Kelly, at eleven, neglected and independent, dealing with a squalid rape; Dinah, knocking on sixty and still on the game; Joanne, not yet twenty, not yet married and already pregnant. Old Alice is welcoming her impending death whilst Muriel helplessly watches the decline of her stoical husband.<br><br>And linking them all, watching over them all, mother to half the street, is fiery, indomitable Iris.</p>