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    The Bricks that Built the Houses
    Unavailable
    The Bricks that Built the Houses
    Unavailable
    The Bricks that Built the Houses
    Ebook366 pages6 hours

    The Bricks that Built the Houses

    By Kae Tempest

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The highly anticipated debut novel from Kae Tempest--acclaimed poet, playwright, rapper, and recording artist--proves their talent to be boundless and unstoppable.

    Becky, Harry, and Leon are leaving London in a fourth-hand Ford with a suitcase full of stolen money, in a mess of tangled loyalties and impulses. But can they truly leave the city that's in their bones?

    Kae Tempest's novel reaches back through time--through tensely quiet dining rooms and crassly loud clubs--to the first time Becky and Harry meet. It sprawls through their lives and those they touch--of their families and friends and faces on the street--revealing intimacies and the moments that make them. And it captures the contemporary struggle of urban life, of young people seeking jobs or juggling jobs, harboring ambitions and making compromises.

    The Bricks that Built the Houses is an unexpected love story. It's about being young, but being part of something old. It's about how we become ourselves, and how we effect our futures. Rich in character and restless in perspective, driven by ethics and empathy, it asks--and seeks to answer--how best to live with and love one another.

    Kae Tempest, a major talent in the poetry and music worlds, sits poised to become a major novelist as well.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury USA
    Release dateMay 3, 2016
    ISBN9781620409022
    Unavailable
    The Bricks that Built the Houses
    Author

    Kae Tempest

    Kae Tempest is a poet. They are also a writer, a lyricist, a performer and a recording artist. They have published plays, poems, a novel, a book-length essay, released albums and toured extensively, selling out shows from Reykjavik to Rio de Janeiro. They received Mercury Music Prize nominations for both of the albums Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos, and two Ivor Novello nominations for their song-writing on The Book of Traps and Lessons. They were named a Next Generation Poet in 2014, a once-in-a-decade accolade. They received the Ted Hughes Award for their long-form narrative poem Brand New Ancients and the Leone D’Argento at the Venice Teatro Biennale for their work as a playwright. Their books have been translated into eleven languages and published to critical acclaim around the world. They were born in London in 1985 where they still live. They hope to continue putting words together for a long time.

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    Reviews for The Bricks that Built the Houses

    3.5/5

    56 ratings8 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I had expected this novel to be a lot more poetic than it really was. I was thinking that this novel would jump from past to present and give me insight into every character. While the story was told in the perspective of every person, I felt like it was really lacking in terms of a story plot. It just kept going in this jarring way that had me confused. The end of the novel left me disappointed, and I didn't really feel as if all of the characters had that much of a unique feature to them. Overall, this was a decent novel, but nothing too exciting.
    • 5/5
      This book starts at the end, with three people in what can be assumed is a bad situation, fleeing London. The first chapter, jarring at first, seems a stroke of genius as the book continues. Written in beautiful, flowing sentences that call out to be read aloud, this book explores these three characters, their parents, their friends, their friend's parents as they navigate the London scene. These are all flawed people who make their way the best they can by forming connections. When almost at the end, I went back to read the first chapter and loved how suddenly I knew these people inside out and it all meant so much more. I was honestly surprised at how much I loved this book and while I was not familiar with the author, I will definitely read any future novel that she writes. I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.
    • 5/5
      Very well written and poetic description of character and their family histories. Involves a drug deal gone wrong and relationships with flaws.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of a cluster of friends in London that include Harry, a drug dealer, Pete, her brother who is pretty aimless and Becky, his girlfriend who is pursuing a career in dance. Each has their own network of friends which ultimately interconnect to some extent. Harry (a woman) puts herself in jeopardy when she double crosses her supplier. Pete and Becky are having trouble in their hot and cold relationship. The characters are well developed and I cared about their fate. Not a Pulitzer Prize winner but a good solid book.
    • 2/5
      I initially had such high hopes for this novel, only to see them dashed to matchwood as I persevered through it. The first hundred or so pages were enchanting, written in an engaging prose that sucked me into the story. Something happened, however, about a third of the way through, with the immediacy of someone flicking a switch, and my interest in the characters and their parts in the convoluted relationships disappeared with the same instanteousness as Robert Burns's snowflake Landon on a river: 'a movement white, then melts forever'. Thereafter I felt mired in turgidity and relief came only when I felt the catharsis of deliberately leaving it on an empty seat on the Heathrow Express.
    • 4/5
      I'm a little late to the party but I just finished reading The Bricks That Built the Houses by Kate Tempest and boy, does she have a way with words. The prologue (entitled Leaving) was a face-slapping first encounter with a contemporary poet and I immediately understood the hype surrounding this young English poet and rapper.In The Bricks That Built the Houses, Tempest has chosen/created two characters from contemporary London and given us their gritty backstory, including their innermost thoughts, hopes and aspirations.Rich in language and character, the novel is also bleak in its depiction of life in the lower classes of London. The novel contains themes of drugs, youth, loneliness and hope and often forces the reader into deep reflection alongside the characters on all manner of topics.Tempest has a unique talent to capture a person/character in a few words with enough realism that I felt as though I'd seen them myself somewhere before. Then they just seem to fade into the background of the story once again. Here's a perfect example from page 95 and one of my favourites from the novel:"Pete sits down and watches an older guy - a few teeth missing, dirty face, long hair, scars mess his skin up like piss lines in a sandpit. He's got a cap on, can in his pocket." Page 95Having heaped so much praise on her language and prose, I do need to confess that the ending was a real disappointment for me. I'm not sure how I wanted it to end, but after investing so much in the characters and being so impressed by the writing, I just wanted 'more'.I believe Kate Tempest is a writer of her generation and I'm certain she will continue to generate jaw dropping and influential material across all of her creative outlets (novels, plays, poetry and the spoken word) in the future. Definitely one to watch.* Copy courtesy of Bloomsbury *
    • 5/5
      Very well written and poetic description of character and their family histories. Involves a drug deal gone wrong and relationships with flaws.
    • 4/5
      Feels a bit like trainspotting.