In Our Mad and Furious City

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What to expect

'Original, honest voices and a vivid portrayal of a London rarely seen in literature' Paula Hawkins

IN OUR MAD AND FURIOUS CITY is 'a love letter to London's streets' (Stylist): an unforgettable portrait of 48 hours in the life of a housing estate, it was one of the most talked-about debuts of 2018 and will be devoured by fans of THIS IS ENGLAND or THE BRICKS THAT BUILT THE HOUSES.

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.

Provocative, raw, poetic yet tender, IN OUR MAD AND FURIOUS CITY marks the arrival of a major new talent in fiction.

(P)2018 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

Critics Review

Guy Gunaratne throws words against the wall and makes us watch them bounce. You feel the heat, reel from the sound, and bump to the unstoppable pulse. A novel so of this moment that you don't even realize you've waited your whole life for it.
Marlon James, author of A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS
Gunaratne has a gift for inhabiting the lives of his characters, and has used that gift here to give life to Londoners who are not often seen in contemporary fiction... a very fine novel
New York Times
Utterly alive. Joyous in its language
New Yorker
A beautiful, fierce storm of a book, full of courage and hope
Jackie Morris, author of The Lost Words
What a voice. What an ear for language. No mean feat to capture the street, the nuance of black experience, the architecture of so many different lives. It's a brave and original piece of work
Kit de Waal, author of THE TRICK TO TIME
A riotous hymn to urban life... passionate, compelling
Guardian
This is cracking. Original, honest voices and a vivid portrayal of a London rarely seen in literature
Paula Hawkins
A vivid and affecting account of estate life, both blighted by frustration and elevated by dreams we can all recognise and share. Guy's characters are drawn with compassion and flair, and I was captivated by their humanity
Stephen Kelman, author of PIGEON ENGLISH
A timely read, addressing the urgent questions of our divided society. We're sure Guy is set for big things
Metro
Gritty, grotesque; graceful and beautiful. This is the London that we call home
J J Bola
This novel is a love letter to the language of London's streets and to its people, but also a blistering look at a city on the edge that'll sweep you up until you reach the book's breathless, devastating conclusion
Stylist
A blistering debut unlike anything I've read before. This is a powerful, raw, yet heartrending account of 48 hours on a London estate
BBC.co.uk
The prose remains alive, alert and subtly integrated, with various accents and non-standard Englishes raising themselves up to the same very high literary watermark. This is one of the hardest things to pull off for a prose stylist. The Dominican-born American writer Junot Diaz is, possibly, the finest living exponent of it. Gunaratne is no doubt on his way. What you are left with - always a treat though not by any stretch as essential to all writing as some would have you believe - is a prose that benefits from being read aloud. But more so, a prose that just plain deserves to be read
Irish Times
In Our Mad and Furious City is fraught and heartbreaking at the same time, with a biting, in-your-face clarity to it that you can't ignore. It's a searing marvel of a novel
Belfast Telegraph
In Our Mad and Furious City is our favourite debut of 2018. Gunaratne draws on growing up in north-west London in this tale of 48 hours on a council estate, where three young boys dream of escaping
Glamour
This riotous hymn to urban life takes a passionate, compelling look at youth culture
Guardian
Two days of race riots, three teenage boys on a north London estate and a grittily realistic patois throughout make this debut glitter despite the darkness
Evening Standard
Already hailed as a modern masterpiece, this timely and authentic portrayal of life for young men living on our city estates is as mesmerising as it is vital
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