Part memoir, part history, part entertainment, Vulnerable in Hearts is a meditation on how we communicate; why we play games; and the ways in which we love.

Sandy Balfour’s father and the game of contract bridge were both conceived in 1925. Vulnerable in Hearts spans the eight decades of Tom Balfour’s life and the same period in the epic story of bridge’s spread around the world. Sandy Balfour’s poignant and beguiling book traces both journeys to explore the relationships between a game and an empire (and the rules that supported it); and a father and a son.