Who They Was

By Gabriel Krauze

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2020

A Spectator Book of the Year

‘A literary rendering of the Top Boy generation… I cannot conjure another work which captures this culture in such depth – or with such brutal honesty – as only lived experience can tell ’ Graeme Armstrong, author of The Young Team

’An astonishingly powerful book’ Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love

This life is like being in an ocean. Some people keep swimming towards the bottom. Some people touch the bottom with one foot, or even both, and then push themselves off it to get back up to the top, where you can breathe. Others get to the bottom and decide they want to stay there. I don’t want to get to the bottom because I’m already drowning.

This is a story of a London you won’t find in any guidebooks.

This is a story about what it’s like to exist in the moment, about boys too eager to become men, growing up in the hidden war zones of big cities – and the girls trying to make it their own way.

This is a story of reputations made and lost, of violence and vengeance – and never counting the cost.

This is a story of concrete towers and blank eyed windows, of endless nights in police stations and prison cells, of brotherhood and betrayal.

This is about the boredom, the rush, the despair, the fear and the hope.

This is about what’s left behind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Aug 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9780008375010

Gabriel Krauze

Gabriel Krauze grew up in London in a Polish family and was drawn to a life of crime and gangs from an early age. He has left that world behind and is recapturing his life through writing. Who They Was, his first novel, was long-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Booker Prize.

Reviews for Who They Was

[novelcommentary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Knowledge is to be found on the edge of experience. As long as you don’t fall off the edge"Who They Was by Gabriel Krause is a visceral plunge into the poor housing world of street crime and drugs experienced first hand by this Booker Prize nominated author. These high rises in Northeast London are within walking distance to the more affluent neighborhoods where Snoopz and Gotti first begin mugging the well dressed women who sport Cartier watches. Their crimes afford them money for drugs and diamond grills on their teeth. It also lands them in jail for periods of time. His narrative depicts his early adult years balancing his dual life of violence with his university experiences pursuing an English Literature degree. So yes, he discusses Fredrick Nietzsche, comparing his philosophy to the need to demonstrate revenge in a world of violent alpha males. The language is authentic and that means at times takes some concentration to puzzle out, but the overall experience is well worth the effort. There's a good interview on Apple podcast where he talks about influences like Steinbeck and his depiction of this gritty life does remind me of Cannery Row or Tortilla Flat. I will be interested in seeing where this talented young man takes his next book about trans generational trauma.Recommend Lines:If you’re nothing without your reputation then violent revenge can be like salvation and deliverance.Half the time I have to proper concentrate to understand what they’re saying. Tameeka’s got bare piercings; tongue, lips, nose, eyebrow, left cheek, and she has this bright platinum-blonde weave that looks like it wants to get off her head and die somewhere quietly.They talk about you should get an honest job. But the way I see it, the way Dario sees it, they mean they want you to submit. Grind hard to fill someone else’s pockets more than your own, come home with just about enough to keep you alive for another month so you can repeat the whole ting over and over again. Drains your spirit. Turns you into a shell. If you press your ear to a shell like that you can hear the sound of dreams in the distance. But it’s just an illusion. Bun dat.The professor talks about human suffering being a confirmation of our existence and I start rubbing my finger over the sharpness of the diamonds in one of my teeth, looking at faces in the room, attentive, uninterested, thinking you don’t know what I know about myself and then I raise my arm. The professor says Gabriel. I say one of the points that Nietzsche makes is that morality is just a rule of behaviour relative to the level of danger in which individuals live. If you’re living in dangerous times, you can’t afford to live according to moral structures the way someone who lives in safety and peace can. So it’s not actually some universal natural ting, you get me, and the professor says did everyone just get that?I become prisoner TF6677 and get put on the induction wing with all the newcomers: a gang of tired faces, cardboard skin, hard stares and haunted eyes, anaesthetised emotions, expectations ripped out.When we picked up the food from the connec in East London, we passed a massive billboard on the side of one building just before Stratford. There was no advert on it, just big black letters on a white background that said Sorry! The lifestyle you ordered is currently out of stock.No one tells you that when you’re known for being a certain way, there’s not just the pressure to live up to your reputation, but you also absorb the power of it and act upon it, fuelled by it, reinforcing and furthering it, until what’s really holding you back from getting out of this greazy life is yourself.