Bloomsbury presents Who They Was written and read by Gabriel Krauze. Longlisted for the Booker Prize Named a Most Anticipated Book of Summer 2021 by Entertainment Weekly, Time, and CrimeReads Named a Best Book of 2021 by Time An astonishing, visceral autobiographical novel about a young man straddling two cultures: the university where he is studying English Literature and the disregarded world of London gang warfare. The unforgettable narrator of this compelling, thought-provoking debut goes by two names in his two worlds. At the university he attends, he's Gabriel, a seemingly ordinary, partying student learning about morality at a distance. But in his life outside the classroom, he's Snoopz, a hard living member of London's gangs, well-acquainted with drugs, guns, stabbings, and robbery. Navigating these sides of himself, dealing with loving parents at the same time as treacherous, endangering friends and the looming threat of prison, he is forced to come to terms with who he really is and the life he's chosen for himself. In a distinct, lyrical urban slang all his own, author Gabriel Krauze brings to vivid life the underworld of his city and the destructive impact of toxic masculinity. Who They Was is a disturbing yet tender and perspective-altering account of the thrill of violence and the trauma it leaves behind. It is the story of inner cities everywhere, and of the lost boys who must find themselves in their tower blocks.
Dieser Download kann aus rechtlichen Gründen nur mit Rechnungsadresse in A, D ausgeliefert werden.
A wild ride from the very first page. An astonishing telling of a young man's search for belonging, caught between a life of crime with his London gang and hopes for his academic future.
'An astonishingly powerful book. Krauze is an immense new talent' Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love
'Magnificent in its relentless intensity and searing honesty, this is a new voice arriving fully formed and raring to go' Booker Prize judges 2020
'It is exceptional' Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie
'A wild ride from the very first page. An astonishing telling of a young man's search for belonging, caught between a life of crime with his London gang and hopes for his academic future' Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain
'Arrives on the literary scene like the sound of gunfire over a south Kilburn housing estate ... With its distinctive argot and moments of ultraviolence, Who They Was is akin to A Clockwork Orange - except that instead of a well-heeled author's fantastical brainchild, it is a hyperrealistic tale from a writer who has lived the lifestyle it describes' Guardian
'By turns visceral, funny, moving and appalling ... a powerful evocation of gang life on this estate in south Kilburn' The Times
'Who They Was could-and should-prove a historical turning point for British literature and future, as yet unheard, voices' Complex
'There is a lot of soul-searching, but it is never allowed to interrupt the action for long; Gabriel is just as likely to be witnessing somebody else's navel being sliced open as gazing at his own ... he writes honestly and infesctiously about the buzz that comes with committing violent crime ... he has plenty of talent to see him through' Telegraph
'I cannot conjure another work which captures this culture in such depth - or with such brutal honesty - as only lived experience can tell. This is a literary rendering of the Top Boy generation Krauze's voice is stuck in my head and it is an authentic voice of the streets' Graeme Armstrong, author of The Young Team
'Magnificent in its relentless intensity and searing honesty, this is a new voice arriving fully formed and raring to go' Booker Prize judges 2020
'It is exceptional' Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie
'A wild ride from the very first page. An astonishing telling of a young man's search for belonging, caught between a life of crime with his London gang and hopes for his academic future' Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain
'Arrives on the literary scene like the sound of gunfire over a south Kilburn housing estate ... With its distinctive argot and moments of ultraviolence, Who They Was is akin to A Clockwork Orange - except that instead of a well-heeled author's fantastical brainchild, it is a hyperrealistic tale from a writer who has lived the lifestyle it describes' Guardian
'By turns visceral, funny, moving and appalling ... a powerful evocation of gang life on this estate in south Kilburn' The Times
'Who They Was could-and should-prove a historical turning point for British literature and future, as yet unheard, voices' Complex
'There is a lot of soul-searching, but it is never allowed to interrupt the action for long; Gabriel is just as likely to be witnessing somebody else's navel being sliced open as gazing at his own ... he writes honestly and infesctiously about the buzz that comes with committing violent crime ... he has plenty of talent to see him through' Telegraph
'I cannot conjure another work which captures this culture in such depth - or with such brutal honesty - as only lived experience can tell. This is a literary rendering of the Top Boy generation Krauze's voice is stuck in my head and it is an authentic voice of the streets' Graeme Armstrong, author of The Young Team