It's 1965 and Joe Cluny is living in a working-class suburb with his mum, Marion, and sister, Ruby, spending his days trying to avoid trouble with the nuns at the local Catholic primary school. One evening his Aunty Oona appears on the doorstep, distressed and needing somewhere to stay.
As his mum and aunty work out what to do, Joe comes to understand the secrets that the women in his family carry, including on their bodies. Yet their pleas for assistance are met with silence and complicity from all sides. Who will help Joe's family at their time of need?
Women & Children is a novel about the love and courage between two sisters, and a sudden loss of childhood innocence.
Women & Children is a touching and powerful story of a ten-year-old boy growing up in working-class Melbourne in 1965.
Joe lives with his mum and sister, dodges trouble with the nuns at his local Catholic primary school, and helps his grandfather collect old scrap and treasure that others have discarded. The book is broken into sixteen sections, each anecdote a glimpse into 1960s family life in inner-city Melbourne and into the subtle shifts of power between parent and child, and men and women. From Joe’s young perspective, we are reminded of the courage of kindness, the value of family to overcome hard times, and the power women have to stand by each other.
In his fantastic new book, Tony Birch writes with a beautiful sensitivity towards his characters, and with a quiet simplicity into darker themes of gender violence and institutional religion—but his novel isn’t angry or tragic. Women & Children refuses silence on these topics, yet emphasises the role kindness plays in recovery, from strangers and from family. A wonderful and profoundly affecting read for fans of Claire Keegan.
