In Our Mad and Furious City
Winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize
-
- 3,99 €
-
- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
*WINNER OF THE JHALAK PRIZE, THE INTERNATIONAL DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE AND THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE*
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE AND THE GORDON BURN*
'I was gripped... remarkable' Robert Macfarlane, Guardian Books of the Year
'A novel that doesn't flinch, and demands change right now' Ali Smith
'A novel so of this moment that you don't even realize you've waited your whole life for it' Marlon James
For Selvon, Ardan and Yusuf, growing up under the towers of Stones Estate, summer means what it does anywhere: football, music and freedom. But now, after the killing of a British soldier, riots are spreading across the city, and nowhere is safe.
While the fury swirls around them, Selvon and Ardan remain focused on their own obsessions, girls and grime. Their friend Yusuf is caught up in a different tide, a wave of radicalism surging through his local mosque, threatening to carry his troubled brother, Irfan, with it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Class, racism, and Islamophobia are explored head-on in Gunaratne's Man Booker-longlisted debut. In London, specifically the towering council estates described as suburban wastelands of "Adidas and... broken windows and overflowing garbage" three streetwise youths from immigrant families are united by their love of football and American rap music. The three are Yusef, the Pakistani son of a now-deceased imam, raised in the shadow of 9/11 and struggling to care for his tormented brother, Irfan; Ardan, Irish son of Caroline, who fled a family deep with IRA violence; and Selvon, who carries with him a fury that alienates him from his Caribbean-born, politically active father. But their friendship will be tested by the riots following the (real-life) murder of a white soldier by a black Muslim, riots that will bring ethnicity, familial loyalty, and extremism to the forefront as mosques burn at the hands of the vengeful mobs. Written in the working-class dialect of its protagonists, the novel arrives at a piecemeal portrait of contemporary London that manages to be both Gunaratne's savvy rejoinder to nationalist politics and a Faulkner-esque feat of ventriloquism in its own right.
