Angela McCluskey is an Irish woman who comes to Birmingham hoping for a better life than the poverty she left behind in Ireland. She marries her childhood sweetheart, but the Great War takes him away, leaving her to raise their frail daughter alone. When further tragedy strikes, Angela is forced into choices that haunt her for years — including abandoning a baby on the workhouse doorstep, a secret she carries through the rest of the saga.
Angela is defined by her refusal to give up. She works as a cleaner and barmaid, endures widowhood, fends off dangerous men, and protects her children even when doing so means lying to them. Her guilt over the abandoned child runs through all three books, shaping her relationships and limiting what she believes she deserves. She is stubborn, proud, and deeply ashamed of the things she has done to survive.
Reading Order
See the complete McCluskey Saga reading order for all books in the series.