The Women on Platform Two

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. Agent: Hannah Todd, Madeleine Milburn Ltd. (Mar.)