Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
On the Greenwich Line
On the Greenwich Line | Shady Lewis
1 post | 1 reading
'I was riveted and charmed by this funny, humane and poignant novel. It's written in a voice that is as ardent as it is sensitive, one marked by history and yet managing to remain beautifully unruly and independent.' – Hisham Matar, author of My Friends and The Return In an East London housing office, a frustrated local government employee spends his days trying to figure out what the latest policy announcement means for both himself and the migrants he works with every day. As a favour to a friend, he finds himself roped into organizing the funeral of Ghiyath, a young Syrian refugee. But it is not until his life collides with Ghiyath's death that he realises just how much he has in common with those who've fallen through the cracks. Told with a wry cynicism and deadpan wit, On the Greenwich Line traces the absurdities of racism, austerity, and bureaucracy in contemporary England. This is a story about systemic failure and human courage, and about London and its many lost souls.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
quote
charl08
On the Greenwich Line | Shady Lewis
post image

We couldn't provide any services, since there was hardly any social housing left and a million people were on the waiting list, but we could increase the paper trail...

It had been the logic of bureaucracy since time immemorial...The Pharaohs... only undertook vast, pointless construction projects like the Pyramids of Giza in order to keep the populace busy during flood season....

to make sure they didn't start asking existential questions