First published 2017
Dolores enters the world as a disappointment. Her father bets everything on having a son and loses when she arrives instead. She becomes the youngest of six daughters in 1960s Tiger Bay, Cardiff's impoverished docklands district. Their neighborhood teems with gaming rooms and cafes, crumbling houses hiding family secrets. Dolores watches this strange underworld unfold around her as she grows up in a household where fear and love exist side by side. Her home feels dangerous despite the bonds that tie her family together. Three decades pass. The sisters have scattered and grown apart. Their mother dies, bringing them back to Tiger Bay for the funeral. Dolores faces memories and nightmares as she returns to the place that shaped her. The reunion forces her to confront the tragedy that marked her from birth and understand how her father's gambling addiction destroyed their family.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Tiger Bay, Cardiff
Period: 1960s, 2000s
304 pages · Paperback · Pan Macmillan UK
Content warnings: addiction