Press Reviews

• Marlon James, author of A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS

  Guy Gunaratne throws words against the wall and makes us watch them bounce. You feel the heat, reel from the sound, and bump to the unstoppable pulse. A novel so of this moment that you don't even realize you've waited your whole life for it.

• Stephen Kelman, author of PIGEON ENGLISH

  A vivid and affecting account of estate life, both blighted by frustration and elevated by dreams we can all recognise and share. Guy's characters are drawn with compassion and flair, and I was captivated by their humanity

• Metro

  A timely read, addressing the urgent questions of our divided society. We're sure Guy is set for big things

• BBC.co.uk

  A blistering debut unlike anything I've read before. This is a powerful, raw, yet heartrending account of 48 hours on a London estate

• J J Bola

  Gritty, grotesque; graceful and beautiful. This is the London that we call home

• Kit de Waal, author of THE TRICK TO TIME

  What a voice. What an ear for language. No mean feat to capture the street, the nuance of black experience, the architecture of so many different lives. It's a brave and original piece of work

• Jackie Morris, author of The Lost Words

  A beautiful, fierce storm of a book, full of courage and hope

• Stylist

  This novel is a love letter to the language of London's streets and to its people, but also a blistering look at a city on the edge that'll sweep you up until you reach the book's breathless, devastating conclusion

• Irish Times

  The prose remains alive, alert and subtly integrated, with various accents and non-standard Englishes raising themselves up to the same very high literary watermark. This is one of the hardest things to pull off for a prose stylist. The Dominican-born American writer Junot Diaz is, possibly, the finest living exponent of it. Gunaratne is no doubt on his way. What you are left with - always a treat though not by any stretch as essential to all writing as some would have you believe - is a prose that benefits from being read aloud. But more so, a prose that just plain deserves to be read

• Heat

  Already hailed as a modern masterpiece, this timely and authentic portrayal of life for young men living on our city estates is as mesmerising as it is vital

• Belfast Telegraph

  In Our Mad and Furious City is fraught and heartbreaking at the same time, with a biting, in-your-face clarity to it that you can't ignore. It's a searing marvel of a novel

• Glamour

  In Our Mad and Furious City is our favourite debut of 2018. Gunaratne draws on growing up in north-west London in this tale of 48 hours on a council estate, where three young boys dream of escaping

• Paula Hawkins

  This is cracking. Original, honest voices and a vivid portrayal of a London rarely seen in literature

• Guardian

  This riotous hymn to urban life takes a passionate, compelling look at youth culture

• Evening Standard

  Two days of race riots, three teenage boys on a north London estate and a grittily realistic patois throughout make this debut glitter despite the darkness

• Guardian

  A riotous hymn to urban life... passionate, compelling

• Jon McGregor

  New York Times

  Gunaratne has a gift for inhabiting the lives of his characters, and has used that gift here to give life to Londoners who are not often seen in contemporary fiction... a very fine novel

• James Wood

  New Yorker

  Utterly alive. Joyous in its language

• Marlon James, author of A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS

  Guy Gunaratne throws words against the wall and makes us watch them bounce. You feel the heat, reel from the sound, and bump to the unstoppable pulse. A novel so of this moment that you don't even realize you've waited your whole life for it.

• Stephen Kelman, author of PIGEON ENGLISH

  A vivid and affecting account of estate life, both blighted by frustration and elevated by dreams we can all recognise and share. Guy's characters are drawn with compassion and flair, and I was captivated by their humanity

• Metro

  A timely read, addressing the urgent questions of our divided society. We're sure Guy is set for big things

• BBC.co.uk

  A blistering debut unlike anything I've read before. This is a powerful, raw, yet heartrending account of 48 hours on a London estate

• J J Bola

  Gritty, grotesque; graceful and beautiful. This is the London that we call home

• Kit de Waal, author of THE TRICK TO TIME

  What a voice. What an ear for language. No mean feat to capture the street, the nuance of black experience, the architecture of so many different lives. It's a brave and original piece of work

• Jackie Morris, author of The Lost Words

  A beautiful, fierce storm of a book, full of courage and hope

• Stylist

  This novel is a love letter to the language of London's streets and to its people, but also a blistering look at a city on the edge that'll sweep you up until you reach the book's breathless, devastating conclusion

• Irish Times

  The prose remains alive, alert and subtly integrated, with various accents and non-standard Englishes raising themselves up to the same very high literary watermark. This is one of the hardest things to pull off for a prose stylist. The Dominican-born American writer Junot Diaz is, possibly, the finest living exponent of it. Gunaratne is no doubt on his way. What you are left with - always a treat though not by any stretch as essential to all writing as some would have you believe - is a prose that benefits from being read aloud. But more so, a prose that just plain deserves to be read

• Heat

  Already hailed as a modern masterpiece, this timely and authentic portrayal of life for young men living on our city estates is as mesmerising as it is vital

• Belfast Telegraph

  In Our Mad and Furious City is fraught and heartbreaking at the same time, with a biting, in-your-face clarity to it that you can't ignore. It's a searing marvel of a novel

• Glamour

  In Our Mad and Furious City is our favourite debut of 2018. Gunaratne draws on growing up in north-west London in this tale of 48 hours on a council estate, where three young boys dream of escaping

• Paula Hawkins

  This is cracking. Original, honest voices and a vivid portrayal of a London rarely seen in literature

• Guardian

  This riotous hymn to urban life takes a passionate, compelling look at youth culture

• Evening Standard

  Two days of race riots, three teenage boys on a north London estate and a grittily realistic patois throughout make this debut glitter despite the darkness

• Guardian

  A riotous hymn to urban life... passionate, compelling

• Jon McGregor

  New York Times

  Gunaratne has a gift for inhabiting the lives of his characters, and has used that gift here to give life to Londoners who are not often seen in contemporary fiction... a very fine novel

• James Wood

  New Yorker

  Utterly alive. Joyous in its language