I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning: A novel about love, class and friendship, for fans of Shuggie Bain and Mayflies - Hardcover

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Keiran Goddard grew up in Shard End, Birmingham in a working-class family. He is the author of two poetry collections and the novels Hourglass and I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning. His debut collection was shortlisted for the Melita Hume Prize, he was the runner up in the William Blake Prize and Hourglass was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott prize. His third novel, Fill the World, will be published in February 2027.

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'A virtuosic and devastating exploration of the relationships that bind us, and the places that always call us back. Tender and fierce in turn, Goddard writes about class and friendship with the deftest of touches' Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure

'Keiran Goddard can make you laugh and weep in the same paragraph. This is such a humane, beautiful novel about being from a place you can neither leave nor stay in' Heather Parry, author of Orpheus Builds a Girl

'Enraging, enthralling and ultimately heart-breaking' Aidan Cottrell-Boyce, author of The End of Nightwork

'The language is swaggering, the character development deeply subtle ... genuinely beautiful' Niamh Campbell, author of We Were Young

'One of the most beautiful novels I've read in a very long time, full of rare elegance, sorrow, wit and warmth, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning tells the story of what's left when dreaming feels impossible' Ali Millar, author of The Last Days

Aus dem Klappentext

Five friends. Five lives. Countless hopes.

Patrick, Shiv, Rian, Oli and Conor grew up together. They played together, skipped school together, and dreamt of everything they'd do with their lives.

Now they are thirty, and only Rian has made it out of the estate and moved away to another city, but his money doesn't stop him clinging to a vision of the past that is quickly slipping away. Oli is fading by the day, drinking and snorting his way through the endless boredom, while Conor has a baby on the way and a business plan he hopes will change everything. Patrick and Shiv are as in love as ever, but even they are rocked when an old secret opens up new wounds...

Bold, ambitious, and stylistically striking, I See Buildings Fall like Lightning asks what happens when all the things we expect from our lives end up ... not happening. It lays bare the ways that place and circumstance shape us, explores the redeeming and transforming beauty of friendship and examines the true limits of hope and forgiveness.

'I found these characters and landscapes so achingly real, relatable and deftly, compassionately drawn. Keiran Goddard's is a mind-blowing talent, his writing so beautiful. I can't wait to read everything he ever publishes' Lauren Brown, author of Hands