In Our Mad and Furious City

By: Guy Gunaratne

Narrated by: Ben Bailey Smith, Lou Marie Kerr

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018 

In Our Mad and Furious City is 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, 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 announces the arrival of a major new talent in fiction. 

©2018 Guy Gunaratne (P)2018 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

Critic reviews

"A vivid and affecting account of estate life, both blighted by frustration and elevated by dreams we can all recognise and share." (Stephen Kelman, author of Pigeon English)

"Original, honest voices and a vivid portrayal of a London rarely seen in literature." (Paula Hawkins)

"A love letter to London's streets." (Stylist)