Description
Raised by 'Many Mothers' and an eccentric uncle in a crumbling East Ham home, even Yahya Bas's birth is shrouded in myths which his absent father and distant birth mother are not on hand to dispel. His is an unconventional start in life, where his view of the world is shaped perhaps more by the TV (his many mothers' endless soaps and his uncle's endless new bulletins) as by a primary school where it is all he can do to escape daily beatings.
When, as a teenager, he is sent to Islamic school, Yahya discovers an unexpected gift as a poet, and under his online alter ego as Al-Bayn, he becomes the most widely read poet in the country. But the consequences of his fame are ugly, and his need to learn what became of his father has become so pressing that he flees the UK to travel to Syria under an assumed name.
What he counters there is very far from what he expected to find, and his confession, when he finds himself interned back in the UK, is one that will shake his interrogator to the core: it's the story of how Britain made Yahya in its own image, and above all, it's the story of a young man who insists on telling his story in his own defiant, incendiary words.
About the Author
Guy Gunaratne is the author of IN OUR MAD AND FURIOUS CITY, which won the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the Jhalak Prize and the Author's Club First Novel Award, as well as being shortlisted for the Goldsmith's and Gordon Burn, and longlisted for the Orwell Prize and the Booker. Their most recent novel is MISTER, MISTER. They are a Trustee on the Board of English PEN, and have been a judge for the Goldsmiths Prize and for the Folio Prize. In 2019, the Financial Times included them in its list of the '30 Most Exciting Young People on the Planet'.
Reviews
A quicksilver astonishment of a book, deft and devastating and completely original. Just read it -- Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Gunaratne offers us the study of a young man navigating many identities while searching for security and selfhood. Mister, Mister is a modern testimony of the "British / other" subject as well as an invitation for us, readers, lovers of stories to be defined on our own terms. This is a vital novel of newness and nowness that testifies to the power of fiction that seeks truth
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A rollercoaster coming of age picaresque... glories in the infinite bounty of storytelling * Observer *
Guy Gunaratne's writing comes with big energy and empathy. Illuminated with evocative language and vivid storytelling, Mister Mister salutes belonging in the unbelonging: an essential read for these times -- Salena Godden
I wish I could declare a national reading day in Britain where adults read the same book together, beginning with Mister, Mister. Gunaratne fits a whole nation inside one complex character and in doing so shows us our bones and our souls. Brimming with compassion and Dickensian in its breadth, this incredibly important book eviscerates othering and insists that Britain claim a new identity -- Leone Ross
It's the effervescence and emotional depth of their writing that make Mister, Mister a knockout * Big Issue *
This book tears through you. A searing, shocking odyssey through faith, fury, and the boiling despair at the heart of our age -- Musa Okwonga
Gunaratne is a writer with a rare ability to inhabit savants, outsiders, rebels and others who exist at the so-called margins of mainstream society, and who they write slapbang into the centre. Moving between women's houses and detention centres, global and UK politics, tenderness and devastation, Mister, Mister is where it's at -- Isabel Waidner
Such a sharp and clever book that absolutely refuses easy interpretation. It's about language and faith and extremism and ideas of home and identity and freedom. But also about the opposite of all that - an undoing of identity. One of those really refreshing books that truly doesn't feel like anything I've read before, and one I'm still thinking about -- Anna James
This devastating new novel from Guy Gunaratne confirms them as a writer at the top of their game. They balance an experimental structure with an indelible voice, exploring global, social politics and resolve with ease. Their use of language, precision, thoughtfulness and humanity, make this is the book you will all be reading in 2023 -- Nikesh Shukla
Incisive... an engrossing romp through recent UK history, underpinned by the question: what does it mean to be British? * Esquire *
Thrillingly unstable, as verbally roiling as a pirate radio broadcast, animated by a charismatic antihero prone to "rampant wilding bents". At the same time, what makes it so important is how, like Preti Taneja's Aftermath or the poetry of Bhanu Kapil, it's also drawn to silence and hermeticism: to brown opacity * Guardian *
Brilliantly evocative of the effects of recent horrors many people are all-too keen to forget, Gunaratne's latest affirms that they are a writer with a unique voice and a magnificent ear for dialogue * Booklist *
Vivid. Gunaratne is a skilful storyteller who imaginatively confronts the complexity of identity and unbelonging in Britain * New Statesman *
A provocative powder-keg of a novel. The first-person narrator is so compelling * The Times *
Book Information
ISBN 9781472250247
Author Guy Gunaratne
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Tinder Press
Publisher Headline Publishing Group
Weight(grams) 460g
Dimensions(mm) 232mm * 152mm * 36mm
