Bailey

A moving and often harrowing account of one young woman's struggle against her childhood demons, Bailey explores the idea of self, and how the psyche can lose its way in a labyrinth of memory, fear and desire. Confined in an asylum, Bailey seeks to emerge from a hazy, tormented existence in which the only solid entity is Jim, her fellow inmate. The problem is that Jim is a creature as haunted as Bailey herself ...

With its themes of social snobbery, family dysfunction and ultimate redemption, Bailey is a passionate, daring novel that reveals the underbelly of a society that presents itself as the epitome of respectability. Hawkins' novels, set mainly in the post-hippy doldrums of the seventies and eighties, explore psychological and social themes with a uniquely passionate take on family and personal dysfunction.