Mary Rose Callaghan’s Awkward Women introduces readers to Sally Ann Fitzpatrick, an untidy, unruly, uncertain young woman living her life as best she can in a rapidly changing world. She strives bravely, and with delightfully self-deprecating irony, for a sense of her own identity and independence. Full of gentle sympathy and humorous understanding, these interconnected stories, set between the 1960s and the 1980s in Ireland and the United States, are thoroughly engaging and enriching.