A story of sisterly rivalry, mathematics, medicine, fashion, art and unrequited loves ending in death. O.K.?
As for Talavera Street and all the other streets named upon battles. "What! you live there? Bloody Poles and Irish. Which is worse; you tell me?" Of the two Ryan girls, dark Serena decides she is a Polish, but Little Jen, with her pale skin and red hair, has to be an Irish. Thrown together as children, they grow up sharing everything. This was all very well when they were little, but harder to manage as they grew older. It became a disaster for the men who were carried along in their lives. The result is a miniature epic of complicity, comedy and obsessions lit up by glints from the giant, glittering mirror-scaled serpent of madness. Only Jennifer's self sacrifice makes some space for the others to live completed lives.