In Our Mad and Furious City cover art

In Our Mad and Furious City

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

In Our Mad and Furious City

By: Guy Gunaratne
Narrated by: Ben Bailey Smith, Lou Marie Kerr
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018

In Our Mad and Furious City is an unforgettable portrait of 48 hours in the life of a housing estate, it was one of the most talked-about debuts of 2018 and will be devoured by fans of This is England or The Bricks That Built the Houses.

For Selvon, Ardan and Yusuf, growing up under the towers of Stones Estate, summer means what it does anywhere: football, music, freedom. But now, after the killing of a British soldier, riots are spreading across the city, and nowhere is safe.

While the fury swirls around them, Selvon and Ardan remain focused on their own obsessions: girls and grime. Their friend Yusuf is caught up in a different tide, a wave of radicalism surging through his local mosque, threatening to carry his troubled brother, Irfan, with it.

Provocative, raw, poetic yet tender, In Our Mad and Furious City announces the arrival of a major new talent in fiction.

©2018 Guy Gunaratne (P)2018 Headline Publishing Group Ltd Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Protest cover art
So Late in the Day cover art
The Truth About These Strange Times cover art
The Wacky Man cover art
My Brother's Secret cover art
Hope Farm cover art
The Bricks That Built the Houses cover art
How It Ends cover art
Lamb cover art
The Puzzle Women cover art
The Twelve cover art

Critic reviews

"A vivid and affecting account of estate life, both blighted by frustration and elevated by dreams we can all recognise and share." (Stephen Kelman, author of Pigeon English)

"Original, honest voices and a vivid portrayal of a London rarely seen in literature." (Paula Hawkins)

"A love letter to London's streets." (Stylist)
All stars
Most relevant
As an immigrant the subject matter is of great interest to me - a safe read for Guardian reading middle class people who forgot to check in. on what's really happening in the streets - characterisation is conceptually great, but in reality a tad dull - writing is mediocre - it may not have meant to be, but it came across as stereotypical and predictable. I stopped reading it half way through as I felt I was being talked down to... shame - brilliant idea for a book - clever narrative structure - needed to be re-draughted a few more times before going to print in my humble opinion...

Excellent Subject Matter

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Essential to remind the older Londoner of the struggle for our younger generation and the fact that they have to learn their own lessons. Beautiful poetic writing with exquisite pace. Impossible to put down from start to finish

Full of heartbreaking poetry

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An authentic and wonderfully narrated book. As a northerner of Irish descent who lived in London for many years, I could easily understand the the street language and clearly visualise the Stones Estate and surrounding streets. Beautifully written, wonderful rhythm to the words. Can't wait to see what this author comes up with next.

Loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I love this book. I've not felt so instantly like I'm reading something special since discovering Catcher in the Rye. it's so beautifully told that I knowing what happens in the book wouldn't really diminish it's enjoyment. how this book is written and how the story unfolds through first person accounts is stunning

beautiful, poignant, authentic, relevant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I listened to this book while living abroad and feeling homesick for London. (Which may strike those who already know the story as amusing, due to its tense content!) Not a relaxing listen, but fascinating and addictive. The character stick in your head. Do give it a go!

Brilliant, brutal, accurate

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews