(, New edition)

Owing as much to Madonna the pop star as the Virgin Mary, this is a collection of stories in which female saints inform the experiences of contemporary women in difficult predicaments, from schoolgirls watching a sex-education video to a mother sleeping with her boss to get time off with her child.

In a collection that owes more to the spirit of Madonna than the Blessed Virgin, O'Connell takes the dusty icons down from the shelves and sets their spirits loose in the modern world.