Laura Anthony's powerful novel, The Women on Platform Two, immerses readers in the fight for contraceptive access in Ireland, through the stories of several brave women determined to make their own choices about motherhood.
In present-day Dublin, Saoirse is relieved when her pregnancy test is negative, but the news is a disappointment to her partner, Miles. Frustrated and upset, Saoirse impulsively boards the train to Belfast. In transit, she meets Maura--now elderly, but once a young wife hoping to avoid a pregnancy. As Maura shares her history, Saoirse is stunned at the grit of the women who mobilized to gain access to contraceptives in 1971, and how their actions affected thousands of lives, including her own.
Anthony (who also writes as Brooke Harris) immerses readers in 1960s Dublin, where Maura works as a shopgirl. Swept off her feet by a handsome doctor, Maura is already married when she realizes her husband is a dangerous man. As she suffers his abuses, Maura befriends her butcher's wife, Bernie, and the two connect with a group of women agitating for free access to contraception. Soon, they join in the plans for a bold protest: boarding the train to Belfast to purchase contraceptives for themselves. Anthony sensitively depicts the growing friendship between Maura and Bernie and the social risks faced by women who dared to call for open access to contraception. Drawing on real-life accounts of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement, Anthony spins a captivating narrative of courage, female friendship, and the ongoing struggle for a woman's right to choose. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams