Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2020
A Book of the YearSpectator
âA literary rendering of thegeneration⊠I cannot conjure another work which captures this culture in such depth â or with such brutal honesty â as only lived experience can tell â Graeme Armstrong, author ofTop BoyThe Young Team
âAn astonishingly powerful bookâCathy Rentzenbrink, author ofThe Last Act of Love
This life is like being in an ocean. Some people keep swimming towards the bottom. Some people touch the bottom with one foot, or even both, and then push themselves off it to get back up to the top, where you can breathe. Others get to the bottom and decide they want to stay there. I donât want to get to the bottom because Iâm already drowning.
This is a story of a London you wonât find in any guidebooks.
This is a story about what itâs like to exist in the moment, about boys too eager to become men, growing up in the hidden war zones of big cities â and the girls trying to make it their own way.
This is a story of reputations made and lost, of violence and vengeance â and never counting the cost.
This is a story of concrete towers and blank eyed windows, of endless nights in police stations and prison cells, of brotherhood and betrayal.
This is about the boredom, the rush, the despair, the fear and the hope.
This is about whatâs left behind.