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A Stranger City
WINNER OF THE WINGATE LITERARY PRIZE 2020
When a dead body is found in the Thames, caught in the chains of HMS Belfast, it begins a search for a missing woman. A policeman, a documentary film-maker and an Irish nurse named Chrissie all respond to the death of the unknown woman in their own ways. London is a place of random meetings, shifting relationships - and some, like Chrissie, intersect with many.
The wonderful Linda Grant weaves a tale around ideas of home; how London can be a place of exile or expulsion, how home can be a physical place or an idea, how all our lives intersect.
'Reminds us of the depth and strength of the communities that are our beloved London. Thank you' Philippe Sands
'There's a Dickensian quality to the opening scene and yet it's one of the most bitingly contemporary publications of the year - a shifting, polyphonic narrative' Hephzibah Anderson, Mail on Sunday
'There is a richness in this novel, found in a migrant experience that is deeply embedded rather than distinct from its environment... a compelling read' Jake Arnott, Guardian
'The novel is fleet-footed... the way even the minor characters flare into life gives the novel richness and depth... a novel fit for shifting, uncertain times' Suzi Feay, Financial Times
When a dead body is found in the Thames, caught in the chains of HMS Belfast, it begins a search for a missing woman. A policeman, a documentary film-maker and an Irish nurse named Chrissie all respond to the death of the unknown woman in their own ways. London is a place of random meetings, shifting relationships - and some, like Chrissie, intersect with many.
The wonderful Linda Grant weaves a tale around ideas of home; how London can be a place of exile or expulsion, how home can be a physical place or an idea, how all our lives intersect.
'Reminds us of the depth and strength of the communities that are our beloved London. Thank you' Philippe Sands
'There's a Dickensian quality to the opening scene and yet it's one of the most bitingly contemporary publications of the year - a shifting, polyphonic narrative' Hephzibah Anderson, Mail on Sunday
'There is a richness in this novel, found in a migrant experience that is deeply embedded rather than distinct from its environment... a compelling read' Jake Arnott, Guardian
'The novel is fleet-footed... the way even the minor characters flare into life gives the novel richness and depth... a novel fit for shifting, uncertain times' Suzi Feay, Financial Times
322 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 2, 2019
67 people are currently reading
810 people want to read
About the author
Linda Grant
96 books212 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads' database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Linda Grant was born in Liverpool on 15 February 1951, the child of Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants. She was educated at the Belvedere School (GDST), read English at the University of York, completed an M.A. in English at MacMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario and did further post-graduate studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, where she lived from 1977 to 1984.
In 1985 she returned to Britain and became a journalist. From 1995 to 2000 she was a feature writer for the Guardian, where between 1997 and 1998 she also had a weekly column in G2. She contributed regularly to the Weekend section on subjects including the background to the use of drug Ecstasy (for which she was shortlisted for the UK Press Gazette Feature Writer of the Year Award in 1996), body modification, racism against Romanies in the Czech Republic, her own journey to Jewish Poland and to her father's birthplace and during the Kosovo War, an examination of the background to Serb nationalism.
Linda Grant was born in Liverpool on 15 February 1951, the child of Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants. She was educated at the Belvedere School (GDST), read English at the University of York, completed an M.A. in English at MacMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario and did further post-graduate studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, where she lived from 1977 to 1984.
In 1985 she returned to Britain and became a journalist. From 1995 to 2000 she was a feature writer for the Guardian, where between 1997 and 1998 she also had a weekly column in G2. She contributed regularly to the Weekend section on subjects including the background to the use of drug Ecstasy (for which she was shortlisted for the UK Press Gazette Feature Writer of the Year Award in 1996), body modification, racism against Romanies in the Czech Republic, her own journey to Jewish Poland and to her father's birthplace and during the Kosovo War, an examination of the background to Serb nationalism.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews
July 9, 2019
Linda Grant receives too little critical and reader attention in the U.S. Grant has written eight novels over a period of almost twenty-five years. Several have been listed for major UK literary awards. Grant’s novels are unfailingly thoughtful and carefully constructed. Some focus on the Anglo-Jewish experience, others fully engage with contemporary social issues. A Darker Circle, her penultimate 2016 novel and one of my favorites, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and dealt with teenage twins in post-World War Two England who are sent to a tuberculosis hospital, their release, and their lifelong bond: it's deeply affecting and memorable.
Grant builds A Stranger City, her most recent novel, around the discovery of an unidentified young woman found drowned in the Thames, about whom no missing person report was filed, and the media frenzy around the short term disappearance of an Irish woman of roughly similar age. The two women — DB27 and Chrissie — provide a means for Grant to explore social anonymity and insecurity, immigration and Brexit, and displacement. Grant interweaves multiple characters and their stories throughout, all in one way or another linking back to , and novel revolves around these two women, their friends, and their various difficulties in coming to their terms in the contemporary UK. Immigration looms large, as does the threat to immigrants of Brexit. Grant’s is a great idea for a novel, yet I found myself getting lost in the interesting but many characters and their stories. Much as I admire, enjoy, and always look forward to Linda Grant’s fiction, A Stranger City will require a rereading before I can determine just how I feel about it. Three stars for now, but subject to change after a rereading.
Grant builds A Stranger City, her most recent novel, around the discovery of an unidentified young woman found drowned in the Thames, about whom no missing person report was filed, and the media frenzy around the short term disappearance of an Irish woman of roughly similar age. The two women — DB27 and Chrissie — provide a means for Grant to explore social anonymity and insecurity, immigration and Brexit, and displacement. Grant interweaves multiple characters and their stories throughout, all in one way or another linking back to , and novel revolves around these two women, their friends, and their various difficulties in coming to their terms in the contemporary UK. Immigration looms large, as does the threat to immigrants of Brexit. Grant’s is a great idea for a novel, yet I found myself getting lost in the interesting but many characters and their stories. Much as I admire, enjoy, and always look forward to Linda Grant’s fiction, A Stranger City will require a rereading before I can determine just how I feel about it. Three stars for now, but subject to change after a rereading.
July 17, 2019
The novel takes the reader to post-Brexit London where a woman has killed herself by jumping off a bridge. No one has come forward to identify her. The book explores a whole host of people who are connected to the suicidal woman by the most tenuous of strings. A police officer who can't stop thinking about her case. A nurse who was on the bridge simultaneously, yet unaware of the tragedy taking place. A filmmaker who creates a documentary about the jumper. For each of these people, we meet the people in their lives - family or friends or neighbors. This structure (sort of a hub, spoke, wheel approach) makes for a LOT of characters and a lot of subplots. Many of the subplots touch upon the theme of immigration today and how immigrants are (or are not) absorbed into London.
I was alternatively impressed and frustrated by this book. Grant's writing style is right up my alley. Her descriptions are outstanding, freshly rendered, and compelling in their own right. In this case, the book is set in London, and the author makes London come alive for the reader. She almost makes it seem like a character itself. She describes it: "There's nothing one could do that would provoke its surprise. It absorbed atrocities, shrugged them off . . .nobody talked to each other or made eye contact on the tube; like an elephant bitten by a mosquito, London was simply too big, too absorbed in its own individual business, too intent on getting to work and going shopping and having dates and affairs and planning robberies." Her prose made me think.
And it was a good thing it did, because the plot - such as it was - really lacked suspense. It was very fragmented. I felt I kept forgetting who the characters were (omg, I wish I had read this on Kindle where revisiting character info is 10x easier) and had to remind myself repeatedly of who they were and who they were related to. One character had two names to add to the complications. In addition, there were some pretty surreal moments that require the reader to puzzle out what has actually happened and more importantly why. I questioned if certain scenes were meant to be metaphorical. At any rate, I don't mind doing some of the work as a reader, but I felt the balance was tipped away from my favor and not in a good way.
To Grant's credit, she saved the situation a bit in the end with a relative straightforward recitation of what happened to each character, and I did appreciate that . . .in fact, it almost pushed me to give the book another star.
I was alternatively impressed and frustrated by this book. Grant's writing style is right up my alley. Her descriptions are outstanding, freshly rendered, and compelling in their own right. In this case, the book is set in London, and the author makes London come alive for the reader. She almost makes it seem like a character itself. She describes it: "There's nothing one could do that would provoke its surprise. It absorbed atrocities, shrugged them off . . .nobody talked to each other or made eye contact on the tube; like an elephant bitten by a mosquito, London was simply too big, too absorbed in its own individual business, too intent on getting to work and going shopping and having dates and affairs and planning robberies." Her prose made me think.
And it was a good thing it did, because the plot - such as it was - really lacked suspense. It was very fragmented. I felt I kept forgetting who the characters were (omg, I wish I had read this on Kindle where revisiting character info is 10x easier) and had to remind myself repeatedly of who they were and who they were related to. One character had two names to add to the complications. In addition, there were some pretty surreal moments that require the reader to puzzle out what has actually happened and more importantly why. I questioned if certain scenes were meant to be metaphorical. At any rate, I don't mind doing some of the work as a reader, but I felt the balance was tipped away from my favor and not in a good way.
To Grant's credit, she saved the situation a bit in the end with a relative straightforward recitation of what happened to each character, and I did appreciate that . . .in fact, it almost pushed me to give the book another star.
April 18, 2019
[Updated 18/04/2019]
This multi-stranded, thickly woven narrative recalls the intricate Persian carpets that are featured in one of the storylines.
London is portrayed in all its vari-faceted diversity – a kaleidoscope of race and class and culture, as the lives of the people we meet overlap or interconnect in one way or another.
I have to say I enjoyed the first half of the novel more than the second, which seemed to stray off-course with too many diversions and a rather jarring conclusion. However, the writing is always a joy to read with evocative and memorable imagery:
'Autumn and winter are the natural condition of England. London is a city made for rain and trafficclogged roads, umbrellas at the bus stop shaken out on the tube platform, a metropolis of scarves and parkas and boots and bottlegreen leather gloves lined with cashmere which Francesca buys every year, the complete pair never surviving until the spring; lost, impaled by a passer-by on a railing, screaming for its hand.’
With thanks to the publisher for the ARC via Negalley.
This multi-stranded, thickly woven narrative recalls the intricate Persian carpets that are featured in one of the storylines.
London is portrayed in all its vari-faceted diversity – a kaleidoscope of race and class and culture, as the lives of the people we meet overlap or interconnect in one way or another.
I have to say I enjoyed the first half of the novel more than the second, which seemed to stray off-course with too many diversions and a rather jarring conclusion. However, the writing is always a joy to read with evocative and memorable imagery:
'Autumn and winter are the natural condition of England. London is a city made for rain and trafficclogged roads, umbrellas at the bus stop shaken out on the tube platform, a metropolis of scarves and parkas and boots and bottlegreen leather gloves lined with cashmere which Francesca buys every year, the complete pair never surviving until the spring; lost, impaled by a passer-by on a railing, screaming for its hand.’
With thanks to the publisher for the ARC via Negalley.
May 26, 2019
There needs to be a new word to describe this genre of modern literature - it's not exactly dystopian but authors place the setting in the near future with some potential horrors, usually the result of Brexit. For any reader looking for escape from the grinding on of the Brexit fiasco, these books are not the answer as they are invariably to some degree doom-laden.
The horrors depicted by Linda Grant are fairly low key: a general distrust of foreigners, institutionalised deportation via train and prison ship. but in general for her characters life goes on much as usual.
The main thread running through the book relates to the suicide of a young woman who cannot be identified and is therefore buried in a pauper's grave. The policeman dealing with the case is haunted by her lack of identity and a documentary maker explores it, contrasting her fate with another woman who goes missing on the same evening as the suicide. These three characters drift in and out of the narrative in a rather fragmented way and, when the young woman's identity is eventually discovered, it happens through a very odd coincidence which I found hard to believe.
This would possibly matter less if the characters were more interesting. Visually, they are distinct: the author's deep interest in fashion makes sure of that and her descriptions are vivid. But I certainly didn't care about any of them and sometimes confused their names. I would have liked to know a lot more about the strange group living on the "island".
The London backdrop was the most satisfying aspect of the book for me (I too have enjoyed a plate of whitebait at the Trafalgar in Greenwich) but London does not take on the status of a character and overall I found the book disappointing.
The horrors depicted by Linda Grant are fairly low key: a general distrust of foreigners, institutionalised deportation via train and prison ship. but in general for her characters life goes on much as usual.
The main thread running through the book relates to the suicide of a young woman who cannot be identified and is therefore buried in a pauper's grave. The policeman dealing with the case is haunted by her lack of identity and a documentary maker explores it, contrasting her fate with another woman who goes missing on the same evening as the suicide. These three characters drift in and out of the narrative in a rather fragmented way and, when the young woman's identity is eventually discovered, it happens through a very odd coincidence which I found hard to believe.
This would possibly matter less if the characters were more interesting. Visually, they are distinct: the author's deep interest in fashion makes sure of that and her descriptions are vivid. But I certainly didn't care about any of them and sometimes confused their names. I would have liked to know a lot more about the strange group living on the "island".
The London backdrop was the most satisfying aspect of the book for me (I too have enjoyed a plate of whitebait at the Trafalgar in Greenwich) but London does not take on the status of a character and overall I found the book disappointing.
December 1, 2021
ved godt jeg læser engelsk but i dont care about british ppl🥱don't @ me
January 8, 2020
I enjoyed reading A Stranger City. It’s a book which switches from missing person, to missing identity. It’s a London book and it’s a book that is framed by immigration and the ongoing consequences of the UK referendum and the 52% majority in favour of leaving the EU.
London is presented as a city that is both isolating and desperately lonely; full of secrets, a city where you can re-invent yourself and one you can disappear in. It’s also a city that accommodates a natural assimilation of people from all races and backgrounds. When it works, London works well.
The 2016 “Brexit” decision has also brought about a more open hostility towards outsiders, and in A Stranger City (as the title indicates) hostility is present in London as well as in the wider UK.
“Our London is coming to an end, what we knew is disintegrating,soon we won’t recognise the place. You’ve got to go with the change. It’s not our fault, we didn’t initiate it, but you need to prepare, make plans, have your exit route arranged”
As I read this book I was immediately reminded of John Lanchester’s Capital . Both writers focus on a specific street/ neighbourhood as a microcosm of the wider city. It’s very effective.
Grant’s rueful, reflective state-of-the-nation observations are insightful and thought provoking, and contemporary. Again, a comparison with another writer is apt- Ali Smith, whose seasonal quartet Autumn, Winter, Spring, is a work still in progress. Against Smith’s stunningly clever wordplay and the depth of her characters, Linda Grant comes out second best.
As the book concludes it’s not entirely clear whether Linda Grant lauds London or cautions against over romanticisation of the city.
That’s appropriate for such a contemporary novel reflecting the unknowable outcome of a country in flux.
London is presented as a city that is both isolating and desperately lonely; full of secrets, a city where you can re-invent yourself and one you can disappear in. It’s also a city that accommodates a natural assimilation of people from all races and backgrounds. When it works, London works well.
The 2016 “Brexit” decision has also brought about a more open hostility towards outsiders, and in A Stranger City (as the title indicates) hostility is present in London as well as in the wider UK.
“Our London is coming to an end, what we knew is disintegrating,soon we won’t recognise the place. You’ve got to go with the change. It’s not our fault, we didn’t initiate it, but you need to prepare, make plans, have your exit route arranged”
As I read this book I was immediately reminded of John Lanchester’s Capital . Both writers focus on a specific street/ neighbourhood as a microcosm of the wider city. It’s very effective.
Grant’s rueful, reflective state-of-the-nation observations are insightful and thought provoking, and contemporary. Again, a comparison with another writer is apt- Ali Smith, whose seasonal quartet Autumn, Winter, Spring, is a work still in progress. Against Smith’s stunningly clever wordplay and the depth of her characters, Linda Grant comes out second best.
As the book concludes it’s not entirely clear whether Linda Grant lauds London or cautions against over romanticisation of the city.
That’s appropriate for such a contemporary novel reflecting the unknowable outcome of a country in flux.
Read
August 20, 2025I'll grant Linda my deepest confusions about what the hell this was
March 27, 2019
Review to come nearer publication date.
With thanks to the publisher for the ARC via Negalley.
With thanks to the publisher for the ARC via Negalley.
September 6, 2019
The body of a middle-aged, well-dressed woman is found in the Thames. After a year of investigation, she has still not been identified. Linda Grant's book of London starts with the lonely burial of this Jane Doe. This unsolved death is a ploy to allow the author to take a look at the city as it is today and she deals cleverly with many of the issues that beset our nation and its capital through an examination of a small group of people who have been touched by or, at the least, know about the woman's death
The group includes the investigating detective, recently retired, and his wife, the TV documentary maker, (who puts together a show about the woman), and his wife, the Irish nurse who briefly disappeared on the same night and was mistaken for the dead woman and her ex-flat mate, a hard-nosed, cynical young man with a chip on his shoulder.
I enjoyed the book and Grant's prose are good, but I was not as gripped as I might have been and I felt the story flagged in a couple of places.
The group includes the investigating detective, recently retired, and his wife, the TV documentary maker, (who puts together a show about the woman), and his wife, the Irish nurse who briefly disappeared on the same night and was mistaken for the dead woman and her ex-flat mate, a hard-nosed, cynical young man with a chip on his shoulder.
I enjoyed the book and Grant's prose are good, but I was not as gripped as I might have been and I felt the story flagged in a couple of places.
April 15, 2019
A Stranger City is an ambitious novel that seeks to draw parallels between recent history and Brexit Britain, using the stories of various members of northeast London’s diverse community to illustrate the situation.
The frame on which the novel hangs is the discovery of an unidentified young female body in the River Thames. The discovery is investigated by a policeman and featured in a documentary by a filmmaker. We then broaden out and meet their families and some of the wider community. We find a community that is diverse even within the United Kingdom, including Scots, Irish and migrants from elsewhere in England. Then we find migrants from the Commonwealth and semi-recent conflict zones - Iran after the fall of the Shah. And then there are the more recent migrants from within the EU. All are seen to be integral to the London we see today.
Contrast this with an England that seems to be retreating into itself, harking after the glory days of an Empire, capital punishment and boiled cabbage. Those who are smart enough, able enough, want to move away from this increasingly hostile and ignorant society. Which is ironic, since so many of them came to London precisely to enjoy a broader, global perspective and experience culture and sophistication.
The story of the dead woman remains in the background. For a while it is (intentionally) confused by a parallel story of a missing social media star - a vacuous young woman who is famous only for being famous. And while the dead woman mystery is ultimately resolved, it is not satisfying. The main point is that it is possible for someone to go missing and not be missed, not be reported in this unfeeling society. Might it have been different if she had been English?
A Stranger City is successful in depicting a multicultural society; it makes interesting political points showing the contradiction between the current insularity and the aspirations of individual members of that society. There is some wonderful depiction of characters. But it doesn’t quite hang together as a story. It is too difficult to hold so many characters in the mind all at once, so each time a character re-appears, he or she has to be re-learned. Their inter-relationships are too opaque and the narrative drive is just not there. Which is a pity, because the descriptive writing is fabulous.
The frame on which the novel hangs is the discovery of an unidentified young female body in the River Thames. The discovery is investigated by a policeman and featured in a documentary by a filmmaker. We then broaden out and meet their families and some of the wider community. We find a community that is diverse even within the United Kingdom, including Scots, Irish and migrants from elsewhere in England. Then we find migrants from the Commonwealth and semi-recent conflict zones - Iran after the fall of the Shah. And then there are the more recent migrants from within the EU. All are seen to be integral to the London we see today.
Contrast this with an England that seems to be retreating into itself, harking after the glory days of an Empire, capital punishment and boiled cabbage. Those who are smart enough, able enough, want to move away from this increasingly hostile and ignorant society. Which is ironic, since so many of them came to London precisely to enjoy a broader, global perspective and experience culture and sophistication.
The story of the dead woman remains in the background. For a while it is (intentionally) confused by a parallel story of a missing social media star - a vacuous young woman who is famous only for being famous. And while the dead woman mystery is ultimately resolved, it is not satisfying. The main point is that it is possible for someone to go missing and not be missed, not be reported in this unfeeling society. Might it have been different if she had been English?
A Stranger City is successful in depicting a multicultural society; it makes interesting political points showing the contradiction between the current insularity and the aspirations of individual members of that society. There is some wonderful depiction of characters. But it doesn’t quite hang together as a story. It is too difficult to hold so many characters in the mind all at once, so each time a character re-appears, he or she has to be re-learned. Their inter-relationships are too opaque and the narrative drive is just not there. Which is a pity, because the descriptive writing is fabulous.
September 12, 2025
Jeg tror ikke jeg har nok hjerneceller til at kunne holde styr på alle de mennesker (især dem der går under to navne...) og generelt alt hvad de individuelt går rundt og laver.
And, minus en stjerne fordi bogen er trykt som om at sidemargenerne er sat på 0,5 🙃 det burde faktisk bare være ulovligt...
And, minus en stjerne fordi bogen er trykt som om at sidemargenerne er sat på 0,5 🙃 det burde faktisk bare være ulovligt...
September 17, 2024
I don't know how to feel apart from stupid but I think I liked it
April 18, 2019
Several loosely overlapping characters and stories here, forming an overall celebration of the multi-cultural city of London and the opportunities it gives people to create new lives for themselves. The characters are brought together initially by the mystery surrounding an unidentified woman drowned in the Thames but, as is the way of city living, coincidences keep them bumping into each other.
The strength of the book, for me, is its people, what they bring to London and what they get out of it. I have always enjoyed Linda Grant’s preoccupation with personal presentation and there is plenty of that here (I am thinking particularly of Marco and his reinventions of himself as his story unfolds). There is a strong visual aspect to the whole book.
I have long been a fan of Linda Grant’s writing. A couple of examples that struck me:
The train felt itself along the thread of the rails back to London. The sun was low and ruddy. The city had risen, shifted, shrugged, become displaced in some way she didn’t understand. Was it time to move on? Not just yet, there was a little length left on the spool.
The whole of her family was now on its mettle. Their instinct for self-preservation had risen up like iron filings. They were alert and starting to make plans.
Xenophobia is an undercurrent throughout, bubbling up to the surface in aggressive incidents, and at times the novel verges on a dystopian vision of post-Brexit Britain. I get the feeling, though, that I am being shown that London has always absorbed whoever came its way and would continue to do so.
With thanks to Little, Brown/Virago via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.
The strength of the book, for me, is its people, what they bring to London and what they get out of it. I have always enjoyed Linda Grant’s preoccupation with personal presentation and there is plenty of that here (I am thinking particularly of Marco and his reinventions of himself as his story unfolds). There is a strong visual aspect to the whole book.
I have long been a fan of Linda Grant’s writing. A couple of examples that struck me:
The train felt itself along the thread of the rails back to London. The sun was low and ruddy. The city had risen, shifted, shrugged, become displaced in some way she didn’t understand. Was it time to move on? Not just yet, there was a little length left on the spool.
The whole of her family was now on its mettle. Their instinct for self-preservation had risen up like iron filings. They were alert and starting to make plans.
Xenophobia is an undercurrent throughout, bubbling up to the surface in aggressive incidents, and at times the novel verges on a dystopian vision of post-Brexit Britain. I get the feeling, though, that I am being shown that London has always absorbed whoever came its way and would continue to do so.
With thanks to Little, Brown/Virago via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.
April 14, 2024
I love all Linda Grant’s books. Initially, this book has the feel of a crime novel; a missing body, a burial, a retired detective picking up the threads of an old case. But it is really a meditation on the lives of modern-day Londoners in the digital age and a hymn in praise of the city’s diversity amidst the tumult of Brexit - drawing on a multi-racial cast of characters from Persia, Germany, the Lebanon’s, Ireland and Romania among others. As with any LG novel - clothes feature prominently - her favourite way of delineating characters but offering scope for reinvention too. A novel which ultimately suggests London is constantly being redefined and enriched by migration - or as her Detective Pete Dutton says - ‘it’s a coastal port - people will always come in and out.’
Read
September 6, 2020Read my review on Whichbook.net: https://www.whichbook.net/book/12427/...
March 15, 2023
On the fence about this one. An interesting attempt to explore the impact of immigration and Brexit in London. But the timeline and plot, which doesn’t quite peak and then dwindles to the end, are frustratingly fragmented throughout. The characters are described well but in such abundance that none of them had space to resonate.
July 10, 2019
A wonderful exploration of what it means to be anonymous and alone in a city thronging with people, A Stranger City at once preserves the timeless Britishism of modern London whilst celebrating its cosmopolitan and multicultural nature.
The dreaded B-word. Already, travelling around continental Europe, I have been interrogated by a few well-meaning German and even Australian couples I encountered, asking me what the hell is actually happening with Brexit. To which I must regretfully inform them that I have no sodding clue. Does anyone? Grant’s richly-drawn characters certainly don’t seem to either (now there’s verisimilitude for you) and although incompetent politicians inevitably cast their shadow across the novel, the focus rarely wavers from the inner and immediate outer lives of each character. Brexit Britain is explored through the brilliant connectivity of seemingly unrelated characters - each facing their own difficulties, aspirations and regrets - whose stories are synchronised by the discovery of an unidentified body. All the while, stark reminders of the political climate haunt the edges of the novel; a woman is fished from the Thames, immigrants face daily racism and a stream of deportations run alongside. The interconnectivity of each perspective makes for a sinuous and fluid tale, reminiscent of the river around which the city revolves.
Grant’s style is endlessly engaging. The descriptions are eloquent and evocative, recalling British imperialism and the haunting legacy of London’s past: some of the most chilling images were those of the bones of ‘fallen women’ littering the sediment of the Thames, or the imagining of wolf prints left in the snow in time past. However, the somewhat fractured style, for all its continuity, ultimately obstructs emotional investment. The narrative is so piecemeal an ambiguous in places that certain characters have to be re-learned. The conclusion is jarring and unsatisfying, and the word choice is at times incongruously blunt and even vulgar, especially with regards to race. I have had enough of being bombarded by descriptions of ‘epic’ or ‘luxurious wanks’. Nah thanks. (Ooh, I’m a poet and I didn’t know it.)
Definitely not something I would ever normally choose to read, but I’m pleasantly surprised - thank you very much to Virago at Little Brown for the Advanced Reader Copy. A Stranger City is a thought-provoking depiction of contemporary times, of what divides us and of what brings us together.
The dreaded B-word. Already, travelling around continental Europe, I have been interrogated by a few well-meaning German and even Australian couples I encountered, asking me what the hell is actually happening with Brexit. To which I must regretfully inform them that I have no sodding clue. Does anyone? Grant’s richly-drawn characters certainly don’t seem to either (now there’s verisimilitude for you) and although incompetent politicians inevitably cast their shadow across the novel, the focus rarely wavers from the inner and immediate outer lives of each character. Brexit Britain is explored through the brilliant connectivity of seemingly unrelated characters - each facing their own difficulties, aspirations and regrets - whose stories are synchronised by the discovery of an unidentified body. All the while, stark reminders of the political climate haunt the edges of the novel; a woman is fished from the Thames, immigrants face daily racism and a stream of deportations run alongside. The interconnectivity of each perspective makes for a sinuous and fluid tale, reminiscent of the river around which the city revolves.
Grant’s style is endlessly engaging. The descriptions are eloquent and evocative, recalling British imperialism and the haunting legacy of London’s past: some of the most chilling images were those of the bones of ‘fallen women’ littering the sediment of the Thames, or the imagining of wolf prints left in the snow in time past. However, the somewhat fractured style, for all its continuity, ultimately obstructs emotional investment. The narrative is so piecemeal an ambiguous in places that certain characters have to be re-learned. The conclusion is jarring and unsatisfying, and the word choice is at times incongruously blunt and even vulgar, especially with regards to race. I have had enough of being bombarded by descriptions of ‘epic’ or ‘luxurious wanks’. Nah thanks. (Ooh, I’m a poet and I didn’t know it.)
Definitely not something I would ever normally choose to read, but I’m pleasantly surprised - thank you very much to Virago at Little Brown for the Advanced Reader Copy. A Stranger City is a thought-provoking depiction of contemporary times, of what divides us and of what brings us together.
April 18, 2019
I found A Stranger City well written but ultimately unsatisfying.
It’s an oddly-structured, fractured book. The central plot, such as it is, revolves around the discovery of a body of an unidentified woman whom no-one has reported missing, and a woman who is reported missing with a lot of social media fuss at the same time, but is discovered to be fine a couple of days later. A policeman and a filmmaker collaborate to produce a documentary about the missing woman and this device is used as a vehicle for thoughts about identity and isolation in London. In fact, the book is largely taken up with portraits of the lives of incidental characters showing the diversity of London’s population, plus reflections on the difficulty of buying property in London, the vacuousness of hip PR people in London, the gentrification and trendifying of areas of London and so on. In other words, it’s a novel about London – hence the title.
It’s well enough done. Linda Grant is a good writer and her portraits are pretty well painted, although her characters do have a tendency to make speeches rather than sound spontaneous. The thing is, it all felt very familiar and I didn’t get anything very new from it. For me, the London thing has been done to death (and I live in London), Ali Smith, Jonathan Coe and others have written novels about Britain and Brexit and I just got bored with A Stranger City. I didn’t find the characters or what was being said interesting enough to keep going and I’m afraid I gave up about half way through.
This certainly isn’t a bad book; it’s just that for me it says nothing new, in spite of saying it very elegantly. Others may like this more than I did, but it wasn’t for me.
(My thanks to Virago for an ARC via NetGalley.)
It’s an oddly-structured, fractured book. The central plot, such as it is, revolves around the discovery of a body of an unidentified woman whom no-one has reported missing, and a woman who is reported missing with a lot of social media fuss at the same time, but is discovered to be fine a couple of days later. A policeman and a filmmaker collaborate to produce a documentary about the missing woman and this device is used as a vehicle for thoughts about identity and isolation in London. In fact, the book is largely taken up with portraits of the lives of incidental characters showing the diversity of London’s population, plus reflections on the difficulty of buying property in London, the vacuousness of hip PR people in London, the gentrification and trendifying of areas of London and so on. In other words, it’s a novel about London – hence the title.
It’s well enough done. Linda Grant is a good writer and her portraits are pretty well painted, although her characters do have a tendency to make speeches rather than sound spontaneous. The thing is, it all felt very familiar and I didn’t get anything very new from it. For me, the London thing has been done to death (and I live in London), Ali Smith, Jonathan Coe and others have written novels about Britain and Brexit and I just got bored with A Stranger City. I didn’t find the characters or what was being said interesting enough to keep going and I’m afraid I gave up about half way through.
This certainly isn’t a bad book; it’s just that for me it says nothing new, in spite of saying it very elegantly. Others may like this more than I did, but it wasn’t for me.
(My thanks to Virago for an ARC via NetGalley.)
March 7, 2019
London is inhabited by a multi-cultural, diverse society; a society that flaunts its multi-racial, multi-ethnic status; perhaps even its willingness to embrace diversity, difference. It is a Society that values success, entrepreneurial enterprise and its cultural status whilst able to glance over the heads of the disenfranchised, frowning on the lives of those who don’t quite make it. Linda Grant has based her novel A Stranger City in this London. An apt title because her London is peopled with strangers; people that bump up against other strangers, come together and move on to meet with other strangers; strangers from different backgrounds, different status, different aspirations, different communities which are sometimes comprised of a hotchpotch of these varying strands of our society and sometimes a closed, rigid community relating, to race, class, religion or postcode.
At the centre of the plot is the body of a woman who jumped off of London Bridge into the Thames. Despite police and media appeals nobody comes forward to claim her, she is identified as DB27 – Dead body No. 27. The policeman investigating this ‘missing person’ is obsessed with her because she is not a street person, she is well-dressed but there is nothing to identify her. He meets a film maker who makes a documentary about the body and still no one comes forward to identify her. The CCTV image of her shows another female figure – this is Chrissie, an Irish nurse – who has her own tale to tell.
Each character within the text is beautifully drawn, and each comes from a different community, and sometimes no community, but they intersect, relate and move on. Within this fluid assembly of personalities and situations, a story emerges, perhaps to be more accurate, a series of stories that overlap and distort: but I found the viewpoint quite dystopian, uncomfortable. For me London is busy (of course), diverse – certainly; and there are many different kinds of communities, but amongst all this there are many who strive to include those on the margins of society and to strengthen the sense of community – a more positive view. What struck me most was the imagery Ms Grant has evoked following the referendum on the EU which revealed a London, or society, that was hysterically pulling up the drawbridge but not before any ‘foreigners’ were evicted with hundreds of trains packed with the ‘others’.
Despite the somewhat lyrical language which soothed me somewhat from this negative imagery, I did find the text ‘strange’. In what way? I could not say: I feel I am missing something, I just don’t understand what. Would I recommend it? Again, not sure, but it is intriguing and thought provoking. A telling point for me is whether I would re-read it. Definitely not but that is not to say it is not worth reading.
Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.
At the centre of the plot is the body of a woman who jumped off of London Bridge into the Thames. Despite police and media appeals nobody comes forward to claim her, she is identified as DB27 – Dead body No. 27. The policeman investigating this ‘missing person’ is obsessed with her because she is not a street person, she is well-dressed but there is nothing to identify her. He meets a film maker who makes a documentary about the body and still no one comes forward to identify her. The CCTV image of her shows another female figure – this is Chrissie, an Irish nurse – who has her own tale to tell.
Each character within the text is beautifully drawn, and each comes from a different community, and sometimes no community, but they intersect, relate and move on. Within this fluid assembly of personalities and situations, a story emerges, perhaps to be more accurate, a series of stories that overlap and distort: but I found the viewpoint quite dystopian, uncomfortable. For me London is busy (of course), diverse – certainly; and there are many different kinds of communities, but amongst all this there are many who strive to include those on the margins of society and to strengthen the sense of community – a more positive view. What struck me most was the imagery Ms Grant has evoked following the referendum on the EU which revealed a London, or society, that was hysterically pulling up the drawbridge but not before any ‘foreigners’ were evicted with hundreds of trains packed with the ‘others’.
Despite the somewhat lyrical language which soothed me somewhat from this negative imagery, I did find the text ‘strange’. In what way? I could not say: I feel I am missing something, I just don’t understand what. Would I recommend it? Again, not sure, but it is intriguing and thought provoking. A telling point for me is whether I would re-read it. Definitely not but that is not to say it is not worth reading.
Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.
April 19, 2019
A Stranger City is a sinuous tale centring on a documentary about the recovery of a female body from The Thames, identity still unknown six months later. The story expands, covering the lives of the detective in charge of the discovery, the film-maker and his wife, her immigrant grandparents, a nurse who happened to be on the bridge at the time the Jane Doe jumped, and her contacts and much more.
There is a touch of where am I? where was I now? but in the context of this work, set against the Brexit backdrop, which explores the tenuous nature of identity and the speed with which it can evaporate, the mighty cast of colourful and confusing characters and their stories is tolerable.
Linda Grant expresses her views through her characters resolutely and with passion, adding life to her characters and making it easier to envisage a sanitised future lacking much cultural diversity.
With thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK Virago
There is a touch of where am I? where was I now? but in the context of this work, set against the Brexit backdrop, which explores the tenuous nature of identity and the speed with which it can evaporate, the mighty cast of colourful and confusing characters and their stories is tolerable.
Linda Grant expresses her views through her characters resolutely and with passion, adding life to her characters and making it easier to envisage a sanitised future lacking much cultural diversity.
With thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK Virago
May 18, 2019
A dead body found in the Thames is the starting point for this thoughtful and perceptive novel about identity, community, dislocation, immigration and the idea of home and belonging. The many strands of the novel are cleverly interwoven to provide a complex and panoramic portrait of contemporary society in London and the storyline, although fragmented, is compelling enough to engage the reader’s attention throughout. Having said that, I didn't find anything new here. Any London novel is duty bound to represent the many groups and ethnicities that inhabit it, and this Grant dutifully does. And Brexit can’t (ever?) be avoided. I certainly enjoyed the book and wanted to keep turning the pages, but overall was a little underwhelmed by it.
August 28, 2020
I’ve been wanting to read this book for months, in the end I bought my own copy . Not yet well known in Australia, it’s a book about life in modern UK, people living post Brexit, that’s what interested me. So I’m happy to say I loved it. A big feature of it is London, the Thames, suburbs, transport, night life, daily work, changing seasons, landmarks, celebrations, horrors, as experienced by the characters. There are quite a few. All interesting, varied in age, occupation, backgrounds, many with a migrant or ‘stranger’ element. There are ups and downs, life can be grim. A connection exists between them, not a strong narrative link, just the haphazardness of life in action. Beautiful writing, in description, dialogue, rumination, action.
September 26, 2025
3.5⭐️
Read for After Brexit: Cultural Practice in 21st Century Britain
There are a lot of impressive things here: the prose is lovely, the characters feel real, and the thematic tapestry Grant weaves is quite compelling and deeply human. A city that takes more than it gives, one that feeds on death and hate, but also thrives on the best humanity can offer. However, I feel that it's just a tad too long for its own good, and, though certain chapters were gripping, they were few and far between... the book is gruelingly mundane, and though that's almost certainly the point, it left me uninterested more often than not. Still pretty great, though - I can see how it won the awards it did.
Read for After Brexit: Cultural Practice in 21st Century Britain
There are a lot of impressive things here: the prose is lovely, the characters feel real, and the thematic tapestry Grant weaves is quite compelling and deeply human. A city that takes more than it gives, one that feeds on death and hate, but also thrives on the best humanity can offer. However, I feel that it's just a tad too long for its own good, and, though certain chapters were gripping, they were few and far between... the book is gruelingly mundane, and though that's almost certainly the point, it left me uninterested more often than not. Still pretty great, though - I can see how it won the awards it did.
November 22, 2020
This was a 3.5 for me - couldn’t make up my mind about it as at times I found it confusing and disjointed- but perhaps that was the point. Normally I live Linda Grant’s novels and the writing in this was as impressive as ever. But I found I didn’t get involved with the characters and felt somewhat distanced from them. I thought the premise was interesting - however bleak and stark - and it will certainly stay with me. So perhaps I enjoyed it more than I thought I did while reading it!
November 20, 2019
A strange book about a stranger city!
August 24, 2025
I can tell exactly which one of my professors put this on the curriculum for this semester.
The book centers th mysterious death of a woman found in the Thames, following a variety of characters that interact at different points in the story. The main themes of the novel are multiculturalism in London, class and politics.
I found it interesting that several of the events in the novel happened during my childhood (or shortly after) in London, like the acid attacks, brexit, the van terrorist attack.
My dislike of this book is largely a matter of personal taste, not my kind of book at all. I felt that it followed too many characters, i understand that it showcased different lives and cultures of London but I was waiting for their stories to overlap more than they did. Additionally I was expecting the finding out of who the dead woman was to relate to some of the characters. It just felt like the whole book I was waiting for the story to actually start, as if it was one long setup.
The book centers th mysterious death of a woman found in the Thames, following a variety of characters that interact at different points in the story. The main themes of the novel are multiculturalism in London, class and politics.
I found it interesting that several of the events in the novel happened during my childhood (or shortly after) in London, like the acid attacks, brexit, the van terrorist attack.
My dislike of this book is largely a matter of personal taste, not my kind of book at all. I felt that it followed too many characters, i understand that it showcased different lives and cultures of London but I was waiting for their stories to overlap more than they did. Additionally I was expecting the finding out of who the dead woman was to relate to some of the characters. It just felt like the whole book I was waiting for the story to actually start, as if it was one long setup.
June 16, 2019
I have long been a fan of Linda Grant’s writing, so started this with enthusiasm. Was it sustained, though?
The funeral of an unknown woman is taking place as this book opens; her body has been fished out of the River Thames, an apparent suicide from jumping of London Bridge. One of the policeman involved in the enquiry into her death and identification becomes obsessed about the apparent lack of relatives coming forward. Next we meet a producer of television documentaries; he and the policeman discuss the idea of making a programme about the woman. Random characters are drawn together in this book which is much about London as the people who inhabit it.
Much as I loved the first half of the book, Grant’s writing has a wonderful, descriptive, flowing style, I felt my enthusiasm waning, and I can’t really put my finger on any particular reason. Maybe the cramming of so much into one novel – drugs, Brexit, terrorist attacks, acid attacks – felt just too much.
I’ve put this aside for now, but I won’t give up on it just yet. I’ll go back to it in a couple of months and perhaps edit this review if appropriate.
My thanks to Amazon for a copy to review
The funeral of an unknown woman is taking place as this book opens; her body has been fished out of the River Thames, an apparent suicide from jumping of London Bridge. One of the policeman involved in the enquiry into her death and identification becomes obsessed about the apparent lack of relatives coming forward. Next we meet a producer of television documentaries; he and the policeman discuss the idea of making a programme about the woman. Random characters are drawn together in this book which is much about London as the people who inhabit it.
Much as I loved the first half of the book, Grant’s writing has a wonderful, descriptive, flowing style, I felt my enthusiasm waning, and I can’t really put my finger on any particular reason. Maybe the cramming of so much into one novel – drugs, Brexit, terrorist attacks, acid attacks – felt just too much.
I’ve put this aside for now, but I won’t give up on it just yet. I’ll go back to it in a couple of months and perhaps edit this review if appropriate.
My thanks to Amazon for a copy to review
March 28, 2024
4.5
Last book for the WEA course the London novels of Linda grant. Definitely the most dense and intellectual one and my favourite as it was inspired by Grant’s anger over brexit. However this isn’t a brexlit book in the style of Amanda Craig and Jonathan Coe, there are also other themes. The style is polyphonic and the narrative voice changes tense even becoming speculative at times. The story of the Island seemed like magic realism at first but the place actually existed. Critics have hailed this as her most Dickensian novel because of the use of the Thames and a dead body. We debated this on the course and saw how Grant uses a cinematic technique in the same way he does. Themes include mental health/PTSD, racism/illegal immigrants, social media, class and identity. Some people felt the writing was too superficial, too many characters, too depressing/pessimistic and too journalistic. I thought it explored brexit fears and the treatment of migrants effectively, but we all agreed that the former has now been superseded by Covid. IMO it’s quite optimistic as the characters learn to adapt and survive.
Last book for the WEA course the London novels of Linda grant. Definitely the most dense and intellectual one and my favourite as it was inspired by Grant’s anger over brexit. However this isn’t a brexlit book in the style of Amanda Craig and Jonathan Coe, there are also other themes. The style is polyphonic and the narrative voice changes tense even becoming speculative at times. The story of the Island seemed like magic realism at first but the place actually existed. Critics have hailed this as her most Dickensian novel because of the use of the Thames and a dead body. We debated this on the course and saw how Grant uses a cinematic technique in the same way he does. Themes include mental health/PTSD, racism/illegal immigrants, social media, class and identity. Some people felt the writing was too superficial, too many characters, too depressing/pessimistic and too journalistic. I thought it explored brexit fears and the treatment of migrants effectively, but we all agreed that the former has now been superseded by Covid. IMO it’s quite optimistic as the characters learn to adapt and survive.
April 26, 2019
A Stranger City is a novel about London, about the people there and how they find it a home or otherwise. It starts with a dead body found on the Thames, unidentifiable. The body affects only a few people, but in different ways, and from there the narrative weaves around their lives, as London's recent past unfurls and then moves into the near future.
A little disorientating at first (in some ways like the experience of moving to London), the novel falls into a rhythm, highlighting coincidence and connection, and how in such a big, busy, diverse city, anyone's lives can intersect. In this way, it follows on from a lot of other London novels, featuring a range of characters who come together in different ways and emphasising how important the city is in this. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of focus on Brexit and xenophobia resulting from it, as well as the idea of London as a place you might be born in, come to, or leave. It is nuanced, but firmly cementing the city as a place for anyone, where anyone might meet.
This is another London novel, another Brexit novel even, but also a character-focused narrative that is more about people than geography. London is less visceral than in some books, the catalyst for relationships rather than a player itself, and this will suit readers who are interested in a novel that doesn't delve into London itself but looks at people, home, and coincidence.
A little disorientating at first (in some ways like the experience of moving to London), the novel falls into a rhythm, highlighting coincidence and connection, and how in such a big, busy, diverse city, anyone's lives can intersect. In this way, it follows on from a lot of other London novels, featuring a range of characters who come together in different ways and emphasising how important the city is in this. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of focus on Brexit and xenophobia resulting from it, as well as the idea of London as a place you might be born in, come to, or leave. It is nuanced, but firmly cementing the city as a place for anyone, where anyone might meet.
This is another London novel, another Brexit novel even, but also a character-focused narrative that is more about people than geography. London is less visceral than in some books, the catalyst for relationships rather than a player itself, and this will suit readers who are interested in a novel that doesn't delve into London itself but looks at people, home, and coincidence.
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