Guy Gunaratne

'A riotous hymn to urban life... passionate, compelling' Guardian 'A novel that doesn't flinch, and demands change right now' Ali Smith 'What a voice, what an ear for language' Kit de Waal *Shortlisted for the 2018 Gordon Burn Prize* 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 marks the arrival of a major new talent in fiction.

In Our Mad and Furious City

A blazingly propulsive novel from the prize-winning author of In Our Mad and Furious City, following a captured jihadist and poet-preacher as he recounts his path to international notoriety Who is Yahya Bas? Revolutionary poet, notorious jihadist, misbegotten son, self-styled idiot-boy. When the enigmatic Yahya finds himself languishing in a detention center after fleeing the conflict in Syria, he has many questions to face. What was he doing in the desert? Why did he betray his home country? What led him to write the incendiary verses that launched him into international infamy? Mister, his interrogator, wants answers. So Yahya resolves to tell his own story, in his own words, and on his own terms. Mister, Mister is what follows: a coming-of-age story of radical self-invention, a quest for a long-lost father, and a discovery of another way to live in the shadow of war. Brash, biting, yet ultimately tender and bracingly imaginative, Mister, Mister follows a child of the tumultuous 90s and the ravaged aughts as he becomes the unwitting voice of a generation. Who is Yahya Bas? An anti-hero for our modern era, in which we've just begun to survey the wreckage of the West's forever-wars.

A Novel

Mister, Mister

'Enthralling' Guardian Culture Preview 'A quicksilver astonishment of a book. Just read it' Kiran Millwood Hargrave 'A vital novel of newness and nowness' Raymond Antrobus 'A rollercoaster coming of age picaresque' Observer A New Statesman, Vogue, Guardian and Big Issue 2023 Fiction Pick Idiot, poet, jihadist, son. Who is Yahya Bas? An exuberantly imaginative novel of Britishness and unbelonging from the prizewinning author of In Our Mad and Furious City. When Yahya Bas finds himself in a UK detention centre after fleeing the conflict in Syria, he has many questions to face. What was he doing in the desert? Why does he hate this country? Why did he write the incendiary verses which turned him into an online sensation and a media pariah? Mister, his interrogator, wants to keep him locked up. So he decides to tell his life story. On his own terms. Following a child that East Ham made who becomes the unwitting voice of a generation, Mister, Mister is also the story of a quest for a father and the discovery of another way to live in the shadow of war. Bracing, tender, exuberantly imaginative, this is a novel that only Guy Gunaratne could have written.

The eagerly awaited new novel from the prizewinning author of In Our Mad and Furious City

Chinese Dissonance juxtaposes ten stories about a homeless internet celebrity, a suicidal bride, an immigrant flower salesman, a world famous artist, a horrifying viral video and a former Communist soldier, all the while giving a glimpse into Chinese internet culture and its bizarre fascinations. Guy Gunaratne adapts real world commentary from Chinese internet social network streams and message boards and weaves them into ten unforgettable short stories.

Guy Gunaratne

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