These Streets

Written By Linda Malek

These Streets by Luan Goldie

Reviewed by Linda
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Thank you to @hqstories for this copy!

Luan’s latest novel is a heartwarming ode to East London and written for all us folk dealing with the after-effects of gentrification and the housing crises in the areas in which we were born and raised.
Everything felt so close to home as Luan carefully depicts the changing landscape and abrupt changes in Newham & Stratford in particular, following the Olympic bid where house prices soared and local people were forced out of the area.

We meet Jess, a single mother of 2, struggling to make ends meet and after 12 years in the same rental property on mate’s rates, the landlord decides to sell leaving her pretty much homeless. For the first time in over a decade, Jess has an active look at the London property market and is shocked by how much the world has changed right on her doorstep. Keen to stay in the area, she views a few apartments (shoeboxes) in the Olympic village complex with astronomical rent prices and eventually ends up in a hostel having been told that the waiting list for social housing is likely to outlive her.
With two strong-minded young adults to look after, Jess is drowning. She is also the primary carer for her 80-year-old father. The toll of all this on her mental health is tangible and real.
And that's what this author does best, depicting genuine and real characters that could easily be you, me, or someone you know.
The book isn't all doom and gloom, and it's not all about Jess either! Across the road, Jess' life is observed by the watchful eye of Ben. Having recently returned to the area, he is trying to get his life on track following a messy divorce.
All the characters have great personalities - I particularly liked reading about Jess' father and son. The author keeps it light and the novel is peppered with dry humour and above all, there is a strong sense of hope.
Although I secretly wished for a different ending, I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I did!

Linda Malek

I've always had the urge to set up a forum and voice my thoughts after each read, but never had the confidence to do so alone. 18 months ago, I got my fellow book-loving friends involved and formed The Candid Book Club! Aside from having an exponentially growing to-read pile and deteriorating shortsightedness, we've been lucky to have been invited to publisher events and have attended several talks with our favourite authors (Thank you and long may they continue!) To take a break from the pressures of PhD Chemistry, Jess and I exchanged books all the time and in my youth, I was that kid with the first editions of Harry Potter having already read Gulliver’s travels and some Charles Dickens. At work, my desk is a library and luckily for me I sit next to another bookworm Jack who entertains all the photo-taking. I'm suffering from a chronic case of wanderlust (age-related crisis) so books which are set as far away from home as possible tend to float my boat: Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Asia...you name it. But if it's got anything to do with Egypt then I'm all over it. So you get the drift...I read all the time, everywhere (on the tube mostly), everyday, a book a week, and very quickly I'm onto the next! And then sometimes there is a book that stops me in my tracks, makes me want to swallow the pages whole, and have it next to me at all times, with some sentences staying with me forever: Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts, anything by Khaled Hosseini, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (absolute gem of a woman), A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shuklaand and anything by Naguib Mahfouz.

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