I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

Striking, moving, subtly radical. A multivocal narrative focusing on a working-class community in Birmingham … reminiscent of Jon McGregor’s most successful novels, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things and Reservoir 13
Earthy, multivocal and accomplished throughout
A virtuosic and devastating exploration of the relationships that bind us, and the places that always call us back. Tender and fierce in turn, Goddard writes about class and friendship with the deftest of touches
One of the most beautiful novels I’ve read in a very long time, full of rare elegance, sorrow, wit and warmth, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning tells the story of what’s left when dreaming feels impossible
What does it mean to claim one another, and to let one another go? Intimate with its surprises, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning has an honesty that shows us how to love one another and hold onto what matters most
This is a novel full of hard material but infused with dignity and originality. The language is swaggering, the character development deeply subtle … genuinely beautiful
A very affecting novel about working class love, friendship and grief. Bound by kinship and place, Goddard’s multiple narrators create a story that is truly communal, demonstrating our interconnectedness and bravely rejecting the idea that the novel form is built to tell the stories of individuals only
An enraging, enthralling and ultimately heart-breaking novel. Written in a bold and inventive style which invokes the panoptic nature of entrenched friendships, it is a story about the ways such friendships can make you whole or can tear you in half
I found these characters and landscapes so achingly real, relatable and deftly, compassionately drawn. Keiran Goddard’s is a mind-blowing talent, his writing so beautiful. I can’t wait to read everything he ever publishes.
The thing about Keiran Goddard is he’ll make you laugh and weep in the same paragraph. This is such a humane, beautiful novel about being from a place you can neither leave nor stay in
This heartfelt, gut-wrenching novel confirms Goddard as one of the best writers of our time. It’s as poignant as it is artful, and once you read it, it will never leave you … an astonishing achievement
As painful as a punch and as tender as the bruise that follows, this is a moving and deftly drawn world of friendship, hardship, grief and love. Goddard writes beautifully about dead-end jobs, wild nights out and corrosive regrets, but he’s also utterly convincing on the deep joys of friendship, parenthood and holding close the ones you love. A fresh and searing novel for our times
Extraordinary writing about ordinary people * Kirkus *
Tender, violent, affecting … this book takes real pleasure in language * ipaper *
Readable, warm … a moving read that reflects our world * Morning Star *
Melancholy and poetic … you truly live inside these characters and their worries, hopes and dreams all become yours * Daily Express *

Keiran Goddard grew up in Shard End, Birmingham in a working-class family. He is the author of two poetry collections and the novels Hourglass and I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning. His debut collection was shortlisted for the Melita Hume Prize, he was the runner up in the William Blake Prize and Hourglass was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott prize. His third novel, Fill the World, will be published in February 2027.

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