Solace of the Road - Tapa blanda

"Unexpectedly life affirming, wise and mature" (Amanda Craig The Times)

"A memorably touching story with a suitably emotional ending" (Julia Eccleshare Guardian)

"For readers more at home with awkward reality than sentimentality, Solace of the Road has a lot to offer. Siobhan Dowd meets every challenge with the authority of a born writer" (Nicholas Tucker Independent)

"Real, touching, at times gritty, but laced with humour throughout it will delight teenage and adult readers alike" (Irish Post)

"This gritty, realistic novel which deploys Dowd's talent for humour, will appeal to the older teenage reader" (Daily Telegraph)

Memories of Mum are the only thing that make Holly Hogan happy. She hates her foster family with their too-nice ways and their false sympathy. And she hates her life, her stupid school and the way everyone is always on at her. Then she finds the wig, and everything changes. Wearing the long, flowing blonde locks she feels transformed. She's not Holly any more, she's Solace: the girl with the slinkster walk and the super-sharp talk. She's older, more confident - the kind of girl who can walk right out of her humdrum life, hitch to Ireland and find her mum. The kind of girl who can face the world head on.

So begins a bittersweet, and sometimes hilarious journey as Solace swaggers and Holly tiptoes across England and through memory, discovering her true self, and unlocking the secrets of her past. Holly's story will leave a lasting impression on all who travel with her.