A powerful, personal novel about women, children and justice, from one of this country's most loved and clear-eyed storytellers. 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 amp; Children is a novel about the love and courage between two sisters, and a sudden loss of childhood innocence. 'Birch writes so convincingly on power and the blinding nature of its corruptive forces ... He writes social realism, his metier is those who are economically and socially marginalised, and his deep emotional honesty when telling their stories resonates throughout.' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD