The Many Mothers of
Dolores Moore

a novel by Anika Fajardo
September 2025 | Gallery Books

For fans of Rebecca Serle and Elizabeth Acevedo, a magically insightful novel about a woman's journey to discover her roots and what it means to carry our ancestors with us.

In the span of a year, Dolores Moore has become a thirty-five-year-old orphan. After the funeral of the last member of her family, Dorrie has never felt more alone. That is, except for a Greek chorus of deceased relatives whose voices follow her around giving unsolicited advice and opinions. And they won’t stop talking about the deathbed promise she made to return to her birthplace in Colombia.

But with a recent break-up, losing her job, and facing a daunting inheritance of an old Victorian house and two orange tabbies, there’s no way she can leave the country. However when an old flame offers to housesit, the chorus agrees that there's no room for excuses. Armed with only a scrap of a hand drawn map, Dorrie sets off to find out where—and who—she came from.

Anika Fajardo’s charming and poignant new book is a map of loss, motherhood, and magic that welcomes the reader home.
— Chantel Acevedo, author of The Distant Marvels
Gallery Books

The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore
coming September 16, 2025

Anika Fajardo’s The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore is a vibrant, expansive, warm-hearted novel about the places that shape us, the loved ones who never leave us, and all the wrong turns that eventually bring us right back to where we belong.
— Lindsay Starck, author of Monsters We Have Made