Hiding Place, The

Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description

Stori afaelgar a theimladwy am frwydr pum chwaer o dras cymysg am oroesiad yn wyneb amgylchiadau teuluol truenus yng nghymuned liwgar ac unigryw dociau Caerdydd. Nofel a enwebwyd ar gyfer Gwobr Booker 2000.

Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description

A new edition of a moving and sensitive tale of the struggle of five half-caste Maltese-Welsh girls for survival in despairing family circumstances in the unique and colourful community of Tiger Bay in Cardiff.

Dosbarthu

Byddwn yn dosbarthu eitemau sydd mewn stoc o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith, fel arfer drwy Royal Mail Tracked 48. Ar gyfer archebion o flaen llaw, byddwn yn dosbarthu’r eitem o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith ar ôl ei derbyn gan ein cyflenwr.

Dispatch

In-stock items will be dispatched within 3 business days, usually by Royal Mail Tracked 48. For pre-orders, we’ll dispatch within 3 business days of receiving the item from our supplier.

Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review

In 1949, Mary Jessop runs away from her home in the Cynon valley and from her domineering father. She makes her way to Cardiff where she finds work in the Tiger Bay area and meets and marries a Maltese immigrant, Frank Gauci. She becomes part of that burgeoning, cosmopolitan populace but this is no romanticised story of life there. Frank is an inveterate gambler and thief, part of a varied community of people who run cafés, bars, betting shops and are often on the edge of petty criminal activities. Frank and Mary have six daughters and the story is narrated in the present tense by the youngest, Dolores, born in 1960. Relating her sometimes half-remembered and sometimes searing memories of her early years, she gives a graphic account of the poverty, muck, poor housing and deprivation experienced by the majority of residents of Tiger Bay at that time. Her mother, Mary, struggles against impossible odds to rear the six sisters but by the time Dolores is five, for various reasons, of which Dolores has only a child’s grasp, the family has split up and the children are scattered. Thirty years later, in the 1990s, Dolores returns to Tiger Bay after she is informed by Social Services that her mother has died. The area has undergone a seismic change with the development of Cardiff Bay but their old home is in one of the few streets still standing. It has hardly changed and there she meets her sisters again and learns some of the shocking truths missing from her shadowy memories. The reader follows the child’s experiences as they happen, with interspersing stories of the other members of the family and the community. It is a beautifully written book which was short-listed for the Booker prize.