Union Street – Pat Barker

A few pages in, I realised that I’d read this novel before – but given that I’d not recognised it from reading the blurb on the back and leafing through a few paragraphs, it was no less enjoyable second time around.

The book tells the stories of X residents of Union Street, in working class Newcastle(?) not so very long ago. Each has their own story to tell, and the narrators are mainly women. Through these (fictional) women’s stories, Pat Barker shows you childhood, rape, a backstreet abortion, childbirth and death and whilst there is a backdrop of poverty, their lives are not entirely without love or hope.

Buy it: Amazon link