Fire Rush

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2023 AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVEL OF THE YEAR It's time to dance, to love, to be free... 'Mesmerising' Bernardine Evaristo 'Fabulous' Maggie O'Farrell 'Beautiful' Caleb Azumah Nelson Yamaye lives for the weekend, when she can go raving with her friends at The Crypt, an underground club on the outskirts of London. Then everything changes. Yamaye meets Moose, who she falls deeply in love with, and who offers her the chance of freedom and escape. After their relationship is brutally cut short, Yamaye goes on a dramatic journey of transformation that leads her to Jamaica, where past and present collide with explosive consequences. 'Scorching... we follow Yamaye through love, loss and peril, as she chases her dreams and connects with her heritage' Guardian 'Ambitious, atmospheric... a novel of passion and anger' Sunday Times 'A rich and rhythmic story about love and music' i

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 the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, and 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, the Wasafiri New Writing Prize and the BBC National Short Story Award.