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Sky City

The dazzling new novel from the Women’s Prize-shortlisted author of Fire Rush

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Sky City

By: Jacqueline Crooks
Narrated by: Sharon Duncan-Brewster
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Three lives are brought together by chance in 90s London, in this spellbinding story of friendship and loneliness, healing and redemption

*Guardian Book to Read 2026*

Jaycee finally has a room of her own in Sky City, a housing estate in north London carved out of the glow-in-the-dark sky. But her troubled childhood continues to haunt her. When an old classmate, Sol, reappears, he seems to offer her a lifeline. Sol was her first love, and the only person who looked out for Jaycee when they were kids. Can she trust him now?

Her best friend is Ella-G, who left for the glamorous music scene in New York. When Jaycee finds a rare record that seems to lead to Ella-G’s father, the two women go searching for answers in Atlantic City. But what Jaycee encounters there forces her to confront the traumas of her own past. Back in London, can Jaycee, Sol and Ella-G find justice and healing, even as their worlds threaten to crash together and splinter apart?

'Visceral, shocking, moving - Jacqueline Crooks proves yet again that she is an absolutely fantastic writer' Bernadine Evaristo

'Hypnotically beautiful' Louise Kennedy

'Poetic, truthful and powerful' Diana Evans

'A lyrical hymn to London’s overlooked places of sanctuary' Hannah Lowe

'Jacqueline Crooks is the rare groove of literature' Afua Hirsch

'An exhilarating, compelling story that goes deep into the self, and what it is to feel human' Priscilla Morris

© Jacqueline Crooks 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 African American City Life Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Urban Women's Fiction England Emotionally Gripping
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Critic reviews

Visceral, shocking, moving - Jacqueline Crooks proves yet again that she is an absolutely fantastic writer (Bernardine Evaristo)
Hypnotically beautiful, almost weightless, Sky City is the literary equivalent of an out-of-body experience. In the best ways it pole-axed me. (Louise Kennedy)
Jacqueline Crooks is the rare groove of literature - she writes with a rhythm, imagination and unique language that makes even the searing pain of this novel transcendent (Afua Hirsch)
Poetic, truthful and powerful, Sky City gives glittering insight into a wounded black female subjectivity, offering agency and empathy. A beautiful read (Diana Evans)
Shimmering and kaleidoscopic, Sky City is an exhilarating, compelling story that goes deep into the self, and what it is to feel human (Priscilla Morris)
In this rich, searching novel, Jacqueline Crooks writes with great skill and quiet acuity about how the past resists containment, returning in disquieting ways. It is an unsettling yet compassionate exploration of childhood trauma, threaded with the promise of love and redemption, and a lyrical hymn to London’s overlooked places of sanctuary (Hannah Lowe)
Sky City invites us fully into the texture of the 90s. Deeply enjoyable and carrying itself with a calm assurance, this is a novel that is built to last (Roger Robinson)
Sky City is the soul electric, attuned to star-stuff in every word and in every cell of Jaycee's body. A heartbreaking but heartening tale that heals us. I adore this book, the world is transformed by it. (Pascale Petit)
[A] riveting second novel, Crooks’ rhythmic, lyrical prose transports us to a North London housing estate in the 1990s, where three lives intersect to haunting effect… A richly textured story of trauma, friendship, loneliness and redemption, and an evocative portrait of ‘90s London
A luminous novel. Crooks captures the textures of Black British life in the 80s and 90s with tenderness, fury, and breathtaking prose (Jacob Ross)
All stars
Most relevant
A powerful but difficult storyline to stick with. It was almost as if I knew too much about JC’s gleaned from various work experiences of my own. I found myself holding my breath during various parts of the story. The descriptions of the clothes JC and Ella G wore were exquisite. the styles are back in fashion and are classified as Vintage. I enjoyed listening to this book. Some of the places that I thought I had forgotten about came back to me in colour, with the sounds and noises ringing in my head as if I was still there. I wondered how much of the content was autobiographical and how much of the material the author’s fantasy and imagination.

Familiar Places Familiar Experiences

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