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In Our Mad and Furious City

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In Our Mad and Furious City

By: Guy Gunaratne
Narrated by: Ben Bailey Smith, Lou Marie Kerr
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About this listen

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 Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

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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)
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Loved it. One of the best novels I have read in years. So powerful and would highly recommend.

Phenomenal

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Well crafted tale with compelling characters and a lived experience in an all consuming city.

Rivetting from start to end

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I love this book. I've not felt so instantly like I'm reading something special since discovering Catcher in the Rye. it's so beautifully told that I knowing what happens in the book wouldn't really diminish it's enjoyment. how this book is written and how the story unfolds through first person accounts is stunning

beautiful, poignant, authentic, relevant

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Some excellent dialogue. However, the chapters involving Caroline do not maintain the high standard of the dialogue and storyline of the other characters, so 1 star deducted. Most chapters brilliantly capture the voice of ethnic Londoners. Being a Londoner myself, a contemporary novel about London is always welcome.

Ethnic London

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I have waited patiently for a book like Feral Youth by Polly Courtney and it's been a long wait. This is the only other book like it but much broader in its reach. It cleverly and accurately tells the story of the street, from the street but also shows it in a historical context that is blistering in its delivery.

10 stars - five for the book and five for the narration!

Everyone should read this

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A cleverly plotted and structured read. I can only guess there is much truth in what is written here about London which made me sit up, take notice and keep on listening.

The presentation is excellent with new narrators to audible. I got a bit confused whilst listening to who the voices were but this did not detract from the overall message.

My favourite so far of the three man booker 2018 longlisted books read.

London; a melting pot of racial tensions

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Normally I don't mind if books come my way in tangible, Kindle or Audible format but I'm so glad I heard this one. Unless you've a good inner ear for voices there'll be a dimension missing. For example the differing accents of Windrush parents from their children; the varying accents of those attached to the local mosque; the Northern Irish accent of the principal female voice. One critic described the book as 'a blazing polyphonic debut' and the voices weave around one another like the voices in a fugue. Like a fugue there is a increasingly tense sense of 'stretto' towards the end, where the voices come closer together - in many more senses here than in a fugue. This is one of the most gripping listens I've had for quite some time.

You have to hear it.

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This is an incredible book, weaving stories across generations with beautiful prose that captures the rhythms and poetry of London’s streets in its many voices.

London as Poetry

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As an immigrant the subject matter is of great interest to me - a safe read for Guardian reading middle class people who forgot to check in. on what's really happening in the streets - characterisation is conceptually great, but in reality a tad dull - writing is mediocre - it may not have meant to be, but it came across as stereotypical and predictable. I stopped reading it half way through as I felt I was being talked down to... shame - brilliant idea for a book - clever narrative structure - needed to be re-draughted a few more times before going to print in my humble opinion...

Excellent Subject Matter

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I listened to this book while living abroad and feeling homesick for London. (Which may strike those who already know the story as amusing, due to its tense content!) Not a relaxing listen, but fascinating and addictive. The character stick in your head. Do give it a go!

Brilliant, brutal, accurate

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