Random House presents the audiobook edition of Lowborn by Kerry Hudson.
What does it really mean to be poor in Britain today? A prizewinning novelist revisits her childhood and some of the country's most deprived towns
'When every day of your life you have been told you have nothing of value to offer, that you are worth nothing to society, can you ever escape that sense of being 'lowborn' no matter how far you've come?'
Kerry Hudson is proudly working class but she was never proudly poor. The poverty she grew up in was all-encompassing, grinding and often dehumanising. Always on the move with her single mother, Kerry attended nine primary schools and five secondaries, living in B&Bs and council flats. She scores eight out of ten on the Adverse Childhood Experiences measure of childhood trauma.
Twenty years later, Kerry's life is unrecognisable. She's a prizewinning novelist who has travelled the world. She has a secure home, a loving partner and access to art, music, film and books. But she often finds herself looking over her shoulder, caught somehow between two worlds.
Lowborn is Kerry's exploration of where she came from, revisiting the towns she grew up in to try to discover what being poor really means in Britain today and whether anything has changed. She also journeys into the hardest regions of her own childhood, because sometimes in order to move forwards we first have to look back.
The beginning of a relationship is usually all about getting to know each other. Not so for Dave and Alena. He's from London, she's from Siberia. They meet in a slick Bond Street department store, where she's up to no good and it's his job to catch her. So begins an unlikely relationship between two people with pasts, with secrets. But despite everything they don't have in common, they're still fighting for a future together.
“A witty and lively novel set somewhere between the worlds of Roddy Doyle and Irvine Welsh.” —William Dalyrymple, The Guardian
Reminiscent of early Roddy Doyle, Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma begins with our singular heroine’s less than idyllic birth and quickly moves to a spectacular fight that lands Janie and her mother in a local women’s shelter. From there it’s on to a dodgy council flat and a succession of unsuitable men, including the hard-drinking, drug-dealing, ice-cream-buying Tony Hogan. Kerry Hudson’s arrestingly original debut will enthrall readers with Janie’s tragicomic and moving story about coming of age in a non-traditional family amid the absurdities of the 1980s and Thatcherite Britain.
Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award, the Saltire Scottish First Book of the Year and the Green Carnation Prize
'More than just one of the best debuts of the year; one of the best books of the year. It should do for Aberdeen what Trainspotting did for Edinburgh' Louise Welsh, Herald
When Janie Ryan is born, she is destined to be the latest in a long line of Aberdeen fishwives.
Ahead of her lies a life filled with feckless men, filthy council flats and bread & marge sandwiches.
But Janie isn't like the rest of them. She wants a different life.
And Janie, born and bred for combat, is ready to fight for it.
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