After being totally absorbed by the non-fiction story of an adopted Irish woman’s interaction with her biological mother in March, Pat, Mary, Katherine and Brian will next take on London and the lives of two young people trying to escape its tedium. From the Mercury Prize-nominated rapper Kate Tempest comes The Bricks that Built the Houses.
This electrifying debut novel takes us into the beating heart of the capital in this multi-generational tale of drugs, desire and belonging, selected for your enjoyment by former Fianna Fáil cabinet minister Mary O’Rourke.
When it comes to the metropolis of London, it gets into your bones. You don't even realise it, until you're driving through it, watching all the things you've always known and leaving them behind. Young Londoners Becky, Harry and Leon are leaving town in a fourth-hand Ford Cortina with a suitcase full of money. They are running from jealous boyfriends, dead-end jobs, violent maniacs and disgruntled drug dealers, in the hope of escaping the restless tedium of life in south-east London - the place they have always called home.
[Facebook]
As the story moves back in time, to before they had to leave, we see them torn between confidence and self-loathing, between loneliness and desire, between desperate ambition and the terrifying prospect of getting nothing done. In The Bricks that Built the Houses, Kate Tempest explores contemporary city life with a powerful moral microscope, giving us irresistible stories of hidden lives, and showing us how the best intentions don't always lead to the right decisions.
The Eason Book Club will convene to discuss the book on Thursday, April 28th. So get reading! You can listen back to last month’s book club in the podcast below:
