Sky City

Hypnotically beautiful, almost weightless, Sky City is the literary equivalent of an out-of-body experience. In the best ways it pole-axed me. – Louise KennedyJacqueline Crooks is the rare groove of literature - she writes with a rhythm, imagination and unique language that makes even the searing pain of this novel transcendent – Afua HirschPoetic, truthful and powerful, Sky City gives glittering insight into a wounded black female subjectivity, offering agency and empathy. A beautiful read – Diana EvansShimmering and kaleidoscopic, Sky City is an exhilarating, compelling story that goes deep into the self, and what it is to feel human – Priscilla MorrisIn this rich, searching novel, Jacqueline Crooks writes with great skill and quiet acuity about how the past resists containment, returning in disquieting ways. It is an unsettling yet compassionate exploration of childhood trauma, threaded with the promise of love and redemption, and a lyrical hymn to London’s overlooked places of sanctuary – Hannah LoweSky City invites us fully into the texture of the 90s. Deeply enjoyable and carrying itself with a calm assurance, this is a novel that is built to last – Roger RobinsonSky City is the soul electric, attuned to star-stuff in every word and in every cell of Jaycee’s body. A heartbreaking but heartening tale that heals us. I adore this book, the world is transformed by it. – Pascale Petit[A] riveting second novel, Crooks’ rhythmic, lyrical prose transports us to a North London housing estate in the 1990s, where three lives intersect to haunting effect… A richly textured story of trauma, friendship, loneliness and redemption, and an evocative portrait of ‘90s London * Bookseller, Fiction Book of the Month *A luminous novel. Crooks captures the textures of Black British life in the 80s and 90s with tenderness, fury, and breathtaking prose – Jacob RossGorgeously redemptive, and hugely courageous. Enter Sky City to hear the rare grooves and taste the soul food of 90s London, and meet three people so tenderly, so irrefutably, alive they will overflow your heart with their brightness and passion – Alice Hiller

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 multiple prizes including the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Jhalak Prize. It won the PEN American Open Book Award and the Paul Torday Memorial Prize. It was also 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, Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize and BBC National Short Story Award.