Dominoes: A Novel

Phoebe McIntosh

Mar 2024 · Sold by Random House

About this ebook

A tender and provocative debut novel about a mixed-race British woman who makes the shocking discovery in the days leading up to her wedding that her fiancé’s family may have enslaved her ancestors

“Simultaneously sweet and sobering, this is one you will not want to miss.”—Onyi Nwabineli, author of Someday, Maybe

Dominoes opens in London, twenty-nine days before a young couple’s wedding. Layla is a mixed-race woman—with a Black, Jamaican mother, and a white father she’s never met—and Andy is a white man of Scottish descent. When they first meet at a party, they can’t believe how instant their chemistry is, and how quickly their relationship unfolds. Funnily enough, they even share a last name: McKinnon.

Layla’s best friend, Sera, isn’t so sure about Andy, or the fact that her best friend is engaged a white man. As the wedding approaches, Sera prompts her friend to research her heritage more, leading Layla to make a shocking discovery: It’s extremely likely that Andy’s ancestors enslaved Layla’s in Jamaica, and that the money from that enslavement helped build his family’s wealth.

What seemed like a fairy-tale romance is suddenly derailed as Layla begins to uncover parts of her history and identity that she never imagined—or had simply learned to ignore. The process takes her to Jamaica for the first time, where she uncovers truths about her family’s history that will change the way she thinks about herself and her future. As the clock ticks down to her wedding, Layla must make a decision: commit to the man she loves or expose a shameful history that has gone unspoken for far too long.

Ratings and reviews

Layla is a mixed woman six weeks from her wedding to Andy, a white man, when her best friend sends her a documentary. It is about Jamaican slaves and the money slave owners received when the slaves were emancipated. The hitch to the story is that Layla’s relatives may have been slaves to Andy’s relatives. Layla is torn as to how this information affects her marrying Andy and decides to travel to Jamaica to the land of her ancestors and dig deep into the slavery story. I did not quite like the book until one-third in. I felt for Layla and the tremendous dilemma she felt. Her friend Sera was so unlikeable and awful to Layla. There is a true love of family and of the roots evident in the work. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

About the author

Phoebe McIntosh is an actress and playwright from London. She wrote and performed in a sell-out run of her first play, The Tea Diaries, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, followed by her solo show, Dominoes, which toured the South East and London. She completed the Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab program, and her most recent full-length play, The Soon Life, was shortlisted and highly commended for the Tony Craze Award as well as being longlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award. Phoebe won a place on the inaugural Tamasha x Hachette creative writing program and was selected for Penguin’s WriteNow program.