Sugar Street
Jonathan Dee
'An original and fascinating concept that'll keep you hooked and turning the pages' Sunday Post
'Expertly done' The Times
'[A] compelling, original novel' Independent
In Jonathan Dee's explosive novel, an unnamed male narrator has hit the road with a large sum of cash stashed under his car seat. Vigilantly avoiding security cameras, he drives until he meets a city where his past is unlikely to track him down. Renting a room from a less-than-stable landlady whose need for money outweighs her desire to ask questions, he seems to have escaped his former self. But can he?
In a story that moves with swift dark humour and insight, Dee takes us through his narrator's attempt to disavow his former life of privilege and enter a blameless new existence. Having opted out of his material possessions and human connections, the pillars of his new self - simplicity, kindness, and above all invisibility - grow shakier as he butts up against the daily lives of his neighbours in their politically divided working-class city.
Sugar Street is a risky, engrossing and visceral story about a white man trying to escape his own troubling footprint and start his life over.