Book description
Dunmore’s second novel, Burning Bright, is set in the shady underworld of contemporary Manchester and London. It is a world where the old have to fight for survival but, above all, it is a world of sexual exploitation, where emotional ties can lead young women into lives of prostitution.
The novel centres on Nadine, overlooked by her preoccupied parents, desperate for affection, and Enid, an indomitable old woman who lives half her life in the past, reliving her own story of forbidden love. Their stories become interwoven. Nadine is naive and dependent on pimps and dealers. Enid is haunted by the woman she once loved, and the bitter jealousy and murder which dramatically ended their affair. The two women are unknowingly linked by a politician who is rich and powerful and yet permanently scarred by his sexually repressive upbringing. Despite its focus on the ruthless and sometimes violent underworld, this manages to be a moving and optimistic novel about the strength of personal integrity.
