A brilliant collection of short stories from Leonora Brito exploring race, identity, and love

'Magical, enigmatic, distinctive, accomplished and haunting . . . Brito was ahead of her time' BERNARDINE EVARISTO, FROM THE INTRODUCTION

Leonora Brito was a writer of exceptional stories. In Dat's Love, she soaks up the sights, sounds and colours of Cardiff to boldly explore race and history.

With each electric story, Brito introduces a unique cast of characters, vibrantly elevating their everyday lives. From 59-year-old Dorothy taking up nude modelling to black aristocrat Dido Elizabeth Belle absconding her uncle's estate, from the assassination of JFK to what's going down at the Blue Bayou bar, Brito blends the surreal and the mundane to redress history and immerse the reader in a vibrantly painted world.

Containing an unusual exactness and sense of place, Brito's stories are unique in Welsh fiction in presenting an insider's perspective on a black Welsh history only alluded to by other writers. Full of wry humour and startling originality, this collection features Brito's most acclaimed work.

A title in the Black Britain: Writing Back series - selected by Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo, this series rediscovers and celebrates pioneering books depicting black Britain that remap the nation.

About the Author

Leonora Brito (Author)
Leonora Brito was born on July 7 1954. Her mother was from Cardiff's docklands and her father was a seaman from the Cape Verde Islands. Brito left school at sixteen, and it wasn't until she was in her twenties that she attended college, taking a foundation art course followed by a degree in Law and History at Cardiff University. In 1991, she won the Rhys Davies Short Story Prize and her debut short story collection, Dat's Love, was published in 1995. She was working on a second collection at the time of her death in 2007. Her stories were published in the Library of Wales in 2017 and dramatized by the National Theatre of Wales in 2022.

Bernardine Evaristo (Introducer)
Bernardine Evaristo, MBE, is the award-winning author of eight books of fiction and verse fiction that explore aspects of the African diaspora. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other made her the first black woman to win the Booker Prize in 2019, as well winning the Fiction Book of the Year Award at the British Book Awards in 2020, where she also won Author of the Year, and the Indie Book Award. She also became the first woman of colour and black British writer to reach No.1 in the UK paperback fiction chart in 2020. Her writing spans reviews, essays, drama and radio, and she has edited and guest-edited national publications, including The Sunday Time's Style magazine. Her other awards and honours include an MBE in 2009. Bernardine is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University, London, and President of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in London with her husband.
www.bevaristo.com

Reviews
Scintillating . . . Dat's Love conjures into being a vivid and vital picture of life in Cardiff's Tiger Bay . . . Brito's communicable zest for language fizzes like a seltzer . . . a high-water mark in Welsh fiction, with stories that have a real sense of a real place and stand proud on the shelf * Nation Cymru *
Outstanding . . . Leonora Brito shares stirring social observations that cut to the core of the human condition through intimate portraits of a diverse cast of characters. These are stories that stir the soul, quiver the heart, and quicken the brain * LoveReading *
Leonora Brito's perspective is utterly unique and her voice is remarkable. I feel incredibly lucky to have discovered this book and to have made this connection to her legacy -- Orla Mackey, author of MOUTHING
A collection that is sometimes funny and always highly original. Brito's narrators and characters are freetalkers and freethinkers with strikingly singular perspectives * Publishers Weekly *
The themes of race, community, a sense of place, history and identity (and specifically a Welsh identity) explored in Brito's writing are timeless and relevant as ever, making Dat's Love a must-read for everyone * Wales Arts Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241999516
Author Leonora Brito
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 138g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 12mm