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Pity

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Pity

By: Andrew McMillan
Narrated by: Joe Pitts
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About this listen

A SUNDAY TIMES BEST BOOK TO READ IN 2024

AN INDEPENDENT BEST FICTION TO READ IN 2024

A NEW STATESMAN FICTION HIGHLIGHT OF 2024

A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2024

'A deeply felt and rich enactment of love, loneliness and personal triumph that leaves an indelible mark on modern Queer life' OCEAN VUONG

The town was once a hub of industry. A place where men toiled underground in darkness, picking and shovelling in the dust and the sleck. It was dangerous and back-breaking work but it meant something. Once, the town provided, it was important; it had purpose. But what is it now?

Brothers Alex and Brian have spent their whole life in the town where their father lived and his father, too. Now in his middle age and still reeling from the collapse of his personal life, Alex must reckon with a part of his identity he has long tried to conceal. His only child Simon has no memory of the mines. Now in his twenties and working in a call centre, he derives passion from his side hustle in sex work and his weekly drag gigs.

Set across three generations of South Yorkshire mining family, Andrew McMillan’s magnificent debut novel is a lament for a lost way of life as well as a celebration of resilience and the possibility for change.

©2024 Andrew McMillan (P)2024 Canongate Books Fiction Genre Fiction LGBTQIA+ Creators Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural

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Critic reviews

Tender and true. It explores with brilliance and deep empathy how our lives - and our secrets - are always intertwined with those who went before us. (DOUGLAS STUART)

Pity pays a great poet's tough but tender attention to the unspoken layers and historic fissures which lie beneath the wounded town of the self. This beautiful book about the marks that are left on people and places in turn leaves a deep empathic mark. (MAX PORTER)
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You can tell the author is a poet. The book is vividly written with a sympathetic approach to his characters and some great social history.

Beautiful language and interesting characters

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The redemption of drag, the memories of destroyed mining communities, the homage to those who struggle to express themselves as LGBT+, the power of undermining dreadful Thatcher.
Loved it

Beautifully written, expertly narrated

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