Peerless Flats — Esther Freud

Sixteen-year-old Lisa has high hopes of imitating her older sister Ruby during her first years in London. Ruby's shady past and rockabilly boyfriend indicate to Lisa a life lived to the fullest. But as her family's prospects start to look bleak, Lisa must reinvent herself as the only sane and sensible member of her family. Spare, elegant, and often funny, Peerless Flats is an unblinking and moving portrait of a pained adolescence in 1970s London.