This title was long-listed for the Guardian First Book Award

Winner of Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize 2001. Shortlisted for Booker Prize for Fiction 2000.

A brilliant debut novel shortlisted for the 2000 Booker Prize set in the Maltese community of Tiger Bay in Cardiff. Dolores, the narrator, tells the story of her childhood and her compulsive gambler father who loses everything to the head of the Maltese Mafia. His gambling leads to a fire that disfigures her and the story flits between past and present as Dolores reflects on her childhood and the lives that her father created for himself and his children.

Trezza Azzopardi was born and grew up in the Maltese community of Tiger Bay, Cardiff. She currently lives in Norwich after completing the UEA Creative Writers Course. She is working on her second novel.