A city and its people are in the grip of a killer who is roaming the northern city, singling out prostitutes. The face of his latest victim stares out from every newspaper and billboard, haunting the women who walk the streets. But life and work go on. Brenda, with three children, can't afford to give up while Audrey, now in her forties, desperately goes on 'working the cars'.
And then, when another women is savagely murdered, Jean, her lover, takes desperate measures...
Katha Pollitt
''Blow Your House Down'' is swift, spare and utterly absorbing - you'll probably read it in one tense sitting....If the plot could have used some rethinking, the novel nonetheless presents a remarkable portrait of the women themselves. Literature is full of prostitutes, of course, but most of them are male fantasies of one sort or another....Mrs. Barker is able to make us see her characters from within, as they see themselves, and thereby reveals the full individuality and humanity of women who have got short shrift both in literature and in life. That makes Pat Barker a feminist. It also makes her a wonderful writer. -- New York Times
From the Publisher
Barker's creative vision is as in touch with the psychologically primordial as Melville'sHARPER'SSwift, spare, and utterly absorbing ... [Barker] makes us see her characters from within... and thereby reveals the full individuality and humanity of women who have got short shrift both in literature and in lifeNY TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Barker's talent for gently sifting through the hidden depths of the human psyche is awesomeNOVA