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Another Kind of Concrete by Koushik Banerjea
£8.99
Out of stock
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9781913090081
Published:
27 Feb 2020
Format:
Paperback
Number of pages:
479 pages
Dimensions:
196x128x30mm
Weight:
0.320kgs
Author:
It's the Silver Jubilee of 1977 and, along with the pomp, it's punk that's in full swing. South of the river, the polyester clad natives are in uproar, the new sights and sounds an affront to their dignity. They don't like the kids with streaks in their hair, and they most certainly don't like the ones with colour in their cheeks. K. is one of those kids, marooned with his family in a sea of hostility. But they're no strangers to adversity, outsiders long before punk. His parents, both refugees, view that as a small price to pay for starting over after the mayhem of Indian Partition. But when bricks start to fly, and threats are made, the long buried demons of the past resurface. And as summer wears on, things will reach a head in a grim local dance of law and disorder. If England was dreaming, it's wide awake now.
The three R's: routemasters, reading, rioting.
Intoning this mantra K., a bookish young boy, ducks the fare but not the issues in this darkly comic coming-of-age tale largely unfolding in a city and an era where everything: culture, people, even the local architecture, appears to be in open revolt.
It's 1977 and the Queen's Silver Jubilee and, along with the pomp, it's punk that's in full swing. South of the river, the polyester-clad natives are in uproar. They don't like the kids with colourful streaks in their hair, and they most certainly don't like the ones with colour in their skin. K. is one of those kids, marooned with his family in a sea of hostility. His parents, both refugees, view that as a small price to pay for starting over after the mayhem of Indian Partition. When threats are made and bricks start to fly, long-buried demons of the past resurface. And as summer wears on, unresolved issues culminate in a grim local dance of law and disorder.
If England was dreaming, it's wide awake now. Festooned with streamers and safety pins, while in its shadows something primal has begun to stir. London in extremis. Just below the surface, and sometimes not even that far, Another Kind of Concrete.
About the Author: Koushik Banerjea was born in London, where he still lives. After graduating from Warwick University, where he studied Spanish and International Studies, he trained with the BBC as a journalist before going on to work as a feature writer for the cult journal, 2nd Generation magazine. From the late 1990s, for almost a decade, he deejayed as one half of 'The Shirley Crabtree Experience'. In 2000, he survived the Hatfield train crash. At this time he was employed as a youth worker specializing in issues of social inclusion while also studying for a Ph.D. He was awarded a doctorate in sociology from London South Bank University in 2009 and subsequently taught postcolonial theory at the London School of Economics. His short fiction has been published in 'The Good Journal' and in 'Shots in the Dark', a Cultureword collection of crime stories. He has also been published in the 2018 Writers Resist Anthology (Running Wild Press), and in the online literary journal, 'Minor Literatures', as well as in 'Verbal' (London Books), to which he has been a regular contributor since 2016. Another Kind of Concrete is his debut novel.
| Number of pages | 479 |
|---|
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| First Item | 2 Items & Over | |
|---|---|---|
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| EU | £15.00 | £30.00 |
| USA & Canada | £30.00 | £50.00 |
| Rest of the World | £45.00 | £60.00 |
| Collect in Store | free | free |
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