"Extraordinarily powerful, enormously readable, this novel in five parts by the acclaimed author of Under a Thin Moon traces the sexual and social connections between its main characters: women from a single Lancashire village seeking to recover against the odds some sense of being and purpose in lives dominated by poverty, violence and fantasy." "Karen is haunted by her biker past and history appears to be repeating itself in her daughter, Dawn. At Dawn's school a young girl falls victim to sexual violence while two of her classmates pursue dreams of their favourite rock stars. Elsewhere in the village a mysterious traveller captures the attention of a young mother trapped in an unhappy marriage, Janice the librarian fights to shake off an eating habit and relationship which are equally compulsive, and Lizzie, an unemployed artist, wrestles with her boyfriend's interest in pornography and her inability to find symbols for the decline she sees around her. Meanwhile the figure of the serial killer shadows their daily lives."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved