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The Bricks That Built the Houses

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The Bricks That Built the Houses

By: Kae Tempest
Narrated by: Kae Tempest
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About this listen

The Sunday Times best seller.

Award-winning poet and rapper Kae Tempest's electrifying debut novel takes us into the beating heart of the capital in this multigenerational tale of drugs, desire and belonging.

It gets into your bones. You don't even realise it until you're driving through it, watching all the things you've always known and leaving them behind.

Young Londoners Becky, Harry and Leon are leaving town in a fourth-hand Ford Cortina with a suitcase full of money. They are running from jealous boyfriends, dead-end jobs, violent maniacs and disgruntled drug dealers, in the hope of escaping the restless tedium of life in Southeast London - the place they have always called home.

As the story moves back in time, to before they had to leave, we see them torn between confidence and self-loathing, between loneliness and desire, between desperate ambition and the terrifying prospect of getting nothing done.

In The Bricks That Built the Houses, Kae Tempest explores contemporary city life with a powerful moral microscope, giving us irresistible stories of hidden lives and showing us how the best intentions don't always lead to the right decisions.

Cover designed by Greg Heinimann.

©2016 Kae Tempest (P)2017 Audible, Ltd Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction Heartfelt

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Critic reviews

"One of the leading wordsmiths of our time. She turns her raw, observational skills in book form to the urban young growing up poor - sex, drugs and increasing poverty amid the looming threat of gentrification." (Jon Snow)

"This is a bold, bright, beguiling novel; a lustrous pageant that dazzles and grips. An irresistible, immersive snapshot of a changing world, delivered in woozy, staccato sentences. There's great pleasure to be taken from Tempest's debut. She may well be unstoppable." (Sunday Telegraph)

"It's hard not to be blown away by Kae Tempest. A stirring, post-Dickensian lens trained on London's lonely underbelly." (Evening Standard)
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I'm not certain exactly when this story is set but it took me right back to my youth in 1990s South London. The characters feel genuine - I met so many people just like them at the time - and the story weaves them together, gradually, perfectly.
The ending manages to swerve shy of clichés and I could just about believe it could work out that way.
I knew of Kate Tempest before listening to this book but am now a firm fan. I love her voice but wasn't sure if her spoken-word/street-poet style of narration would "do my head in" after a while. It didn't! She provides the perfect beat and pause for the descriptive parts, but the conversations sound natural and I was totally absorbed.
I'm sad to have finished it and will be looking out for more of her work in future.

Step back into 1990s South London

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I really like Kate Tempest and it was great to hear her narrate this book herself. Her delivery is rhythmic and direct and the storyline pulls no punches in its description of south Londoners in their struggles through life in a similar vein to her Let Them Eat Chaos work. Kate is fantastic at building complex characters that are realistic and believable and her word play is incredibly detailed and compelling. The rounded vowels of her south London dialect provide authenticity which I cannot imagine for someone reading this story themselves.

A grimey tale of south London bought to life

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loved it, like her music but deeper, more conversational, didn't want it to finish.
brilliant

such easy effortless conversational writing.

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I really enjoyed this - especially as read by the author - which gives it a personal touch and authenticity.

Great listen

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But I am willing to make an exception.

Don't listen to this if you want a happy jolly tale of young people battling against minor setbacks.
Don't listen to this if you want a neat story line with the odd twist but a predictable ending.
Do listen to this if you love the English language and you want to explore the multicultural origins of modern London.

I don't leave reviews

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I really liked the structure of this story with the characters backstories interwining from the main one.
I thought it was a good insight into modern day life and really liked the characters, especially Harry. would recommend this book and am definitely going to listen to it again with my boyfriend

poetic justice

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It took me a little while to warm up to Tempest’s style but this is incredible. I feel bereft that it has ended and am now seeing poetry in everything.

Lyrical and beautiful

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I could listen to Kate Tempest all day, her stunning ability to create beauty in the darkest of places

Poetic and beautiful

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If you like Kae Tempest's poetry, you will love their first novel. It's a double dose of that Tempest magic -- the deftness of the words, and the music of their voice. Characters you come to care about, a story that loops through unexpectedly connections and anticipated comic perfect-storm climaxes. I was sad when I finished it, and am looking forward to the film. There HAS to be a film.

Absolutely brilliant

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The Bricks that Built the Houses is amazing. I loved everything about it. I loved the setting, modern-day London. Tempest breathes life into the city and I could practically hear, smell and taste it. I loved the characters as well. They are all wonderfully formed, made of flesh and bone. I loved them all and wanted everything to work out for them. The plot is great as well, gritty and compelling. I really like Tempest’s prose style. The Bricks that Built the Houses is vivid and full of rich detail. I LOVED this book and will gush about it for months to come. Amazing!

Stunning

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