The Women on Platform Two
A Novel of Ireland
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3.8 • 6 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
In 1970s Dublin, all forms of contraception are strictly forbidden, but an intrepid group of women will risk everything to change that in this “heartbreaking, powerful, and ultimately uplifting” (Amanda Geard, author of The Midnight House) novel inspired by a little-known true story.
Dublin, 1969: Maura has just married Dr. Christy Davenport and they look forward to growing their family. But as her husband’s vicious temper emerges, Maura worries that her home might never be safe for a child. Meanwhile, her close friend Bernie, a mother of three, learns the devastating news that another pregnancy could prove fatal.
Dublin, 2023: A close call makes Saoirse realize that she may never want to be a mother. Little does she know that only a few decades ago, a group of women made this option possible for her. And she’s about to meet one of them…
The Women on Platform Two is an “inspiring novel about the liberating paths blazed by Irish women” (Kirkus Reviews) and how much farther we still have to go.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Anthony, a pseudonym for thriller writer Janelle Harris (See Me Not), delivers an immersive intergenerational story about contraception in Ireland. In a frame narrative set in contemporary Dublin, a young woman named Saoirse meets the elderly Maura on a train when she returns a photo that dropped out of Maura's scrapbook. The photo depicts Maura with her friend Bernie traveling on the same train to Belfast in 1971, and Maura tells Saoirse the story behind it, beginning with the bond she formed with Bernie in 1969, when both women feared getting pregnant. Maura's husband, a respected physician, physically abused her, and she worried he would beat their children, too. Meanwhile, Bernie had recently learned that a pregnancy could be fatal. Contraception was illegal in Ireland at the time, and Maura details how Maura and Bernie united with other women seeking to take control of their lives, leading to a memorable train journey to Belfast (the one depicted in the photo) to obtain birth control. It's an illuminating story of self-determination, and Anthony capably conveys how Maura's courageous actions resulted in Saoirse enjoying freedoms unavailable to women half a century earlier. Readers will be drawn to this impactful narrative.
