PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Jacqueline Crooks grew up in 70s and 80s Southall, part of London's migrant community carving out a space through music, culture and politics. Immersed in the gang underworld as a young woman, she later discovered the power of writing and music to help her look outwards and engage differently with the world - a power that has driven her ever since, from her work with charities to her short stories, which have been nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, the Wasafiri New Writing Prize and the BBC National Short Story Award.
Remarkable... In terms of sheer lyrical force it stands head and shoulders above most debuts. * Daily Telegraph * I was blown away by Fire Rush - an exceptional and stunningly original novel by a major new writer... her mesmerising, imaginative and incantatory writing leaves us swaying to the bass of the visceral rhythms she so powerfully describes. By the end of the novel, I felt charged and changed and already longed to reread it. -- Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER This beautiful, sprawling narrative is wrought with an incredible precision and a musicality which carries every sentence. Crooks' novel haunts but make space for hope as well. -- Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of OPEN WATER A rich and rhythmic story ... Fire Rush is a startlingly good debut. * i * [A] startling debut novel... Jacqueline Crooks has crafted a richly textured world... She succeeds with great aplomb. * Guardian * A brilliant, exuberant novel. Full of beauty, musicality and feminist power. -- Irenosen Okojie, author of NUDIBRANCH Ambitious, atmospheric ... This is a full-blooded novel of passion and anger with a deep, bassy resonance. * Sunday Times * Fire Rush... [is] a window into the dub scene at the time, with rhythmic, lyrical writing and a story about raving, love and the impact of police violence ... Both a page turner and a literary novel... truly remarkable. * Vogue * A vibrant journey into clubs booming with music and culture, nights of dance and defiance... Fire Rush is a book with the power to fill and break your heart...it might be one of the strongest debuts of the year so far. * Skinny * [An] eye-opening, jaw-dropping story. * Critic * An immersive debut ... This is a triumph. * Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review * Fire Rush is a lyrical debut powered by uncompromising political force. * Mail on Sunday * Jacqueline Crooks' lyrical debut dances to the rhythm of the reggae music that pulses throughout it, in a powerful portrait of black womanhood. * UK Press Syndication * [A] scorching, lyrical debut, soaked in dub reggae * Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2023* * A heady swirl of a novel that pulls the reader in from the first page... a fabulous, absorbing read -- Maggie O'Farrell, author of THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT * Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2023* *
