The Ballroom Girls / Книга на Английском; Penguin, 2023

Blackpool, summer 1942.

Meet the Ballroom Girls: Sylvia, Pearl and Joy. Three girls dancing through the turbulence of WWII.

Sylvia is the spoiled only child of an ambitious mother, Lorna Ellis, who runs a dancing school in Blackpool. Approaching 21, Sylvia is under pressure to scoop up prizes by fair means or foul.

Pearl is the oldest daughter in a large, chaotic family who all work at the Pleasure Beach. She often sneaks away to watch ballroom contestants in their glittery finery. She dreams of joining them, but will she ever be anything other than an outsider looking in?

Joy is an evacuee who lost her parents to the Blitz. Now she lives and works in a shabby boarding house and works as a cleaner. Though shy and modest, she falls in love with the newest dance craze - the American Jitterbug. When Lorna's rival dance school spots her talent, Joy is given a chance to break away from boarding house drudgery and enter the glamorous world of professional ballroom dancing.

Through blackouts and air raids, the excitement of the ballroom never dims. But competition is fierce. Will the Ballroom Girls find what they're looking for in the joy of the dance?