At a rundown brothel in Caudal Spain the prostitutes are collecting stray dogs Each is named after a famous male writer Dante Chaucer Bret Easton Ellis When a john is cruel the dogs are fed rotten meat To the east in Barcelona an unflappable teenage girl is endeavouring to trace the peculiarities of her life back to one woman Alba Cambo writer of violent short stories who left Caudal as a girl and never went back Mordantly funny dryly sensual written with a staggering lightness of touch the debut novel in English by Swedish sensation Lina Wolff is a black and Bolanoesque take on the limitations of love in a dogeatdog world