This book provides a comprehensive account and critical analysis of the literary career of Pat Barker. It offers readings of Barker's innovations in narrative form, her revisionist perspectives on history, class and gender, and her preoccupation with themes of trauma, haunting and terror. It also analyses the reasons for her success and significance as a novelist. The chapters draw on contemporary theories of critical realism, gender and social identities, memory and narrative, in order to outline the debates with which Barker's work has consistently engaged.

Brannigan argues that Barker is one of the most important writers in modern English literary history. She is principally renowned and widely acclaimed for her 'Regeneration' trilogy, the last volume of which, 'The Ghost Road', won the Booker Prize in 1995. In recent novels, Barker has continued to deal with controversial and shocking themes, including child murderers and the meanings of 'terror' in the contemporary world.