Sky City

Three lives are brought together by chance in 90s London, in this spellbinding story of friendship and loneliness, healing and redemption *Guardian book to read 2026* 'Visceral, shocking, moving - Jacqueline Crooks proves yet again that she is an absolutely fantastic writer' Bernardine Evaristo 'Hypnotically beautiful' Louise Kennedy Jaycee finally has a room of her own in Sky City, a housing estate in north London carved out of the glow-in-the-dark sky. But her troubled childhood continues to haunt her. When an old classmate, Sol, reappears, he seems to offer her a lifeline. Sol was her first love, and the only person who looked out for Jaycee when they were kids. Can she trust him now? Her best friend is Ella-G, who left for the glamorous music scene in New York. When Jaycee finds a rare record that seems to lead to Ella-G's father, the two women go searching for answers in Atlantic City. But what Jaycee encounters there forces her to confront the traumas of her own past. Back in London, can Jaycee, Sol and Ella-G find justice and healing, even as their worlds threaten to crash together and splinter apart? 'Poetic, truthful and powerful' Diana Evans 'A lyrical hymn to London's overlooked places of sanctuary' Hannah Lowe 'Jacqueline Crooks is the rare groove of literature' Afua Hirsch 'An exhilarating, compelling story that goes deep into the self, and what it is to feel human' Priscilla Morris

Jacqueline Crooks grew up in 70s and 80s Southall, part of London's migrant community carving out a space through music, culture and politics. Fire Rush, her first novel, was shortlisted for multiple prizes including the Women's Prize for Fiction, Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Jhalak Prize. It won the PEN American Open Book Award and the Paul Torday Memorial Prize. It was also chosen as an Observer Best Debut Novel of the Year. For her short stories, a selection of which was published in the collection The Ice Migration, she has been nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize and BBC National Short Story Award.