Critics' Opinion:
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Published Jun 2021
336 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
An astonishing, visceral autobiographical novel about a young man straddling two cultures: the university where he is studying English Literature and the disregarded world of London gang warfare.
The unforgettable narrator of this compelling, thought-provoking debut goes by two names in his two worlds. At the university he attends, he's Gabriel, a seemingly ordinary, partying student learning about morality at a distance. But in his life outside the classroom, he's Snoopz, a hard living member of London's gangs, well-acquainted with drugs, guns, stabbings, and robbery. Navigating these sides of himself, dealing with loving parents at the same time as treacherous, endangering friends and the looming threat of prison, he is forced to come to terms with who he really is and the life he's chosen for himself.
In a distinct, lyrical urban slang all his own, author Gabriel Krauze brings to vivid life the underworld of his city and the destructive impact of toxic masculinity. Who They Was is a disturbing yet tender and perspective-altering account of the thrill of violence and the trauma it leaves behind. It is the story of inner cities everywhere, and of the lost boys who must find themselves in their tower blocks.
Longlisted for the Booker Prize.
"To the growing genre of drug-riddled fiction—Irvine Welsh, Denis Johnson, Joel Mowdy, Nico Walker—Krauze adds a flourish, a kind of harsh music, with his use of gang argot...A gritty read for its gore, drugs, and profanity, but possessed of a raw and honest eloquence." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"At times the author's swagger makes the reader feel the real-life material hasn't been fully sublimated, but the prose sizzles...This tour through a hard-knock life is compulsively readable." - Publishers Weekly
"Krauze has penned a requiem for his younger self, and for young people everywhere caught between worlds of differing morality and beliefs." - Booklist
"Who They Was is by turns visceral, funny, moving and appalling…a powerful evocation of gang life… bit like reading Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, once the reader masters the argot, they are granted access to an elusive subculture." - The Times (UK)
"Extraordinary. With its distinctive argot and moments of ultraviolence, Who They Was is akin to A Clockwork Orange – except that instead of a well-heeled author's fantastical brainchild, it is a hyperrealistic tale from a writer who has lived the lifestyle it describes...Who They Was is a subtle, unflinching novel that deserves to win wide acclaim for bringing this hinterland into focus." - The Guardian (UK)
"Magnificent in its relentless intensity and searing honesty, this is a new voice arriving fully formed and raring to go." - Booker Prize Judges, 2020
"Profound, gripping, and beautiful - Who They Was is a breathtaking and breathless feat of literary graffiti. We cannot look away." - Daniel Magariel, author of One of the Boys
This information about Who They Was was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Gabriel Krauze grew up in London in a Polish family and was drawn to a life of crime and gangs from an early age. He has left that world behind and is recapturing his life through writing. Who They Was, his first novel, was long-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Booker Prize.
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