Jacqueline Crooks

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE “An exceptional and stunningly original novel by a major new writer.” —Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other Set amid the Jamaican diaspora in London at the dawn of 1980s, a mesmerizing story of love, loss, and self-discovery that vibrates with the liberating power of music Yamaye lives for the weekend, when she goes raving with her friends, the “Tombstone Estate gyals,” at The Crypt, an underground dub reggae club in their industrial town on the outskirts of London. Raised by her distant father after her mother’s disappearance when she was a girl, Yamaye craves the oblivion of sound - a chance to escape into the rhythms of those smoke-filled nights, to discover who she really is in the dance-hall darkness. When Yamaye meets Moose, a soulful carpenter who shares her Jamaican heritage, a path toward a different kind of future seems to open. But then, Babylon rushes in. In a devastating cascade of violence that pits state power against her loved ones and her community, Yamaye loses everything. Friendless and adrift, she embarks on a dramatic journey of transformation that takes her to the Bristol underworld and, finally, to Jamaica, where past and present collide with explosive consequences. The unforgettable story of one young woman’s search for home, animated by a ferocity of vision, electrifying music, and the Jamaican spiritual imagination, Fire Rush is a blazing achievement from a brilliant voice in contemporary fiction.

A Novel

Fire Rush

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2023* Immerse yourself in an electric story of dub reggae, love, loss and Black womanhood. He takes my hand, pulls me to him. 'This is our dancing time.' 'I was blown away by Fire Rush ... Mesmerising, imaginative and incantatory' Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other Yamaye lives for the weekend, when she can go raving with her friends at The Crypt, an underground club in the industrial town on the outskirts of London. A young woman unsure of her future, the sound is her guide - a chance to discover who she really is in the rhythms of those smoke-filled nights. In the dance-hall darkness, dub is the music of her soul, her friendships, her ancestry. But everything changes when she meets Moose, the man she falls deeply in love with, and who offers her the chance of freedom and escape. When their relationship is brutally cut short, Yamaye goes on a dramatic journey of transformation where past and present collide with explosive consequences. 'Wrought with an incredible precision and a musicality which carries every sentence' Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water *AN OBSERVER TOP TEN NEW NOVEL 2023* 5* READER REVIEWS: 'This novel takes you on an emotional and unforgettable journey' 'This book has it all ... You're immersed into something really special' 'A stunning debut novel... as relevant to today's racial climate as the 1970s... it felt musical, with dub music almost a secondary character in the novel'

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2023

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- The Ice Migration Route -- Family Tree -- Chigoe -- Black Cowboys -- Breaking Stones -- The Ice Migration -- Backra -- The Lamp -- Walk Good -- Cornmeal Dumplings -- Talking Bad -- Swinging Low -- Survival of the Fittest -- Roaring River Pickney -- In the Spirit -- Gwaan -- Old Time People -- The Old Goat -- The Offering -- Orchids and Bones -- Soft to the Touch -- Skinning Up -- Bu'n Up -- Hard Ears -- The Crypt -- Cool Burn -- Author.

The Ice Migration

He takes my hand, pulls me to him. 'This is our dancing time.' Love changes everything in Fire Rush, the unforgettable novel about Black womanhood from Jacqueline Crooks, chosen as a top 10 debut novel in 2023 by the Observer 'Wrought with an incredible precision and a musicality which carries every sentence.' Caleb Azumah Nelson Yamaye lives for the weekend, when she can go raving with her friends at The Crypt, an underground club in the industrial town on the outskirts of London where she was born and raised. A young woman unsure of her future, the sound is her guide - a chance to discover who she really is in the rhythms of those smoke-filled nights. In the dance-hall darkness, dub is the music of her soul, her friendships, her ancestry. But everything changes when she meets Moose, the man she falls deeply in love with, and who offers her the chance of freedom and escape. When their relationship is brutally cut short, Yamaye goes on a dramatic journey of transformation that takes her first to Bristol - where she is caught up in a criminal gang and the police riots sweeping the country - and then to Jamaica, where past and present collide with explosive consequences. 'I was blown away by Fire Rush ... Mesmerising, imaginative and incantatory.' Bernardine Evaristo 5* READER REVIEWS- 'I will be recommending it to everyone' 'A phenomenal debut novel' 'Yamaye is a fantastic central protagonist ... This novel takes you on an emotional and unforgettable journey' 'This book has it all ... You're immersed into something really special' 'A stunning debut novel... as relevant to today's racial climate as the 1970s... it felt musical, with dub music almost a secondary character in the novel'

Lucy Caldwell

Jo Lloyd

Tamsin Grey

Lynda Clark

A young boy takes delight in his mother’s ability to shapeshift from one animal to another, only realising how odd she is when it comes to parents’ evening . . . The values of a small farming village are challenged by talk of a well-heeled community living on the other side of the lake that only one person can see . . . A writer researching the life of a 19th century child custody reformer discovers all too many parallels between that century and ours . . . The stories shortlisted for the 2019 BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University variously explore the sanctity of the home and family, and the instinct to defend what’s closest to us. Against a backdrop of danger or division, characters sometimes struggle – like the 15-year-old charged with looking after her siblings whilst her mother works through the night – and sometimes succumb – like the young woman who allows herself to be manipulated by an older, richer man. But in each case, these stories demonstrate what Nikki Bedi argues in her introduction: short stories are not a warm-up act, they’re the main event.

Jacqueline Crooks

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