Welcome to Litsy!

Who They Was is an electrifying autobiographical British novel: a debut that truly breaks new ground and shines a light on lives that run on parallel, but wildly different tracks. 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 the story of the other London. This is the story about what it's like to exist here right now, about boys too eager to become men, growing up in the hidden war zones of big cities, and of the girls who are there when it happens. This is the story of reputations made, and lost, of violence and vengeance - and never counting the cost; of concrete towers and blank-eyed windows; of endless nights in police stations and prison cells. This is about the boredom, the rush, the despair, the fear and the hope. This is about what's left behind. This is our story.