Long-listed for the 2018 Man Booker Prize
Short-listed for the 2018 Gordon Burn Prize
Short-listed for the 2018 Goldsmiths Prize
Inspired by the real-life murder of a British army soldier by religious
fanatics, Guy Gunaratne's In Our Mad and Furious City is a snapshot of
the diverse, frenzied edges of modern-day London. A crackling debut from
a vital new voice, it pulses with the frantic energy of the city's
homegrown grime music and is animated by the youthful rage of a
dispossessed, overlooked, and often misrepresented generation.
While Selvon, Ardan, and Yusuf organize their lives around soccer,
girls, and grime, Caroline and Nelson struggle to overcome pasts that
haunt them. Each voice is uniquely insightful, impassioned, and
unforgettable, and when stitched together, they trace a brutal and
vibrant tapestry of today's London. In a forty-eight-hour surge of
extremism and violence, their lives are inexorably drawn together in the
lead-up to an explosive, tragic climax.
In Our Mad and Furious City documents the stark disparities and
bubbling fury coursing beneath the prosperous surface of a city uniquely
on the brink. Written in the distinctive vernaculars of contemporary
London, the novel challenges the ways in which we coexist now--and, more
important, the ways in which we often fail to do so.
