This book highlights the housing crisis. It’s a brilliant story that isn’t all doom and gloom. I liked all the characters. A fabulous story.

I've read and loved two of Luan Goldie's previous novels so I was keen to get to this one too, and I'm so pleased to say that I enjoyed it. It predominantly follows Ben, whose young daughter is now living abroad with his ex-wife and her new partner and he seems very lost; and Jess, a single mother to two teenagers who also has a hoarder of a father who is determined to hold on to his independence. Jess is struggling financially after being told they have to move out of their rented house. This novel explores complex family relationships, the housing crisis and the difficulties of navigating dating again after heartbreak. I loved this novel and I really enjoyed all of the characters and how they all interacted with each other. I definitely recommend this one!

Luan Goldie is one of my most favourite authors. She could seriously publish her shopping list and I would buy it shes that good!. These Streets is a story about people handling their day to day business, living and struggling in East London. Set in the present day, it follows Jess, a single mum to 2 kids dealing with lack of support, lack of money and potentially losing her home. It's just an honest, raw and hopeful story and I highly recommend it. Thanks to Luan Goldie, HQ and Netgalley for the ARC.

I loved the author's previous novel Nightingale Point so was thrilled to receive a copy of These Streets.
Jess lives in Stratford, East London and is a single parent to Hazel and Joshua. She is just about managing financially when she is faced with eviction when her landlord decides to sell her house and shortly after loses her job. Ben has recently returned to the area after his ex partner moved to Tenerife with their six year old daughter.

These Streets covers important contemporary issues such as the housing crisis, insecure employment, class and gentrification with real insight. I loved the characters and was completely drawn into the life of Jess and her family. The author writes with such warmth and heart and I found this to be a compelling and hopeful read. Highly recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

This is a wonderful novel. It is full of the most delightful characters, sparky dialogue and sweet relationships. These Streets also pulls no punches about the housing crisis in London.

Jess is a single parent threatened with eviction. The story follows her journey as she negotiates the hurdles and bureaucracy of trying to find a new home. All the characters are superbly created and have distinct individual voices. There is lovely humour and the pace is perfect. It is a treat of a read.

Very much deserving of the longlist womens prize for fiction award.

I’ve seen surprisingly little of this book on bookstsagram, which is unusual considering the author was longlisted for the Women’s Prize in 2020 for her debut novel Nightingale Point. These Streets is Goldie’s third novel. It’s set in East London and though billed as one woman’s struggle when the house she’s living in is going to be sold from under her, it’s more of a romance and family drama with some social commentary.

Jess is a single mother living with her two children in a slightly rundown rental house when her landlord drops the bombshell that he wants to sell up. There follows a run of bad luck for Jess that has her scrambling to find a home for her family as things begin to fall apart on several fronts.

Ben is a lonely single father whose daughter lives on Tenerife with her mother following the marriage breakdown. Ben befriends Jess’ dad and realises that he has a connection to the family from the past that he would prefer to keep buried.

Exploring themes such as gentrification, the housing crisis, the cost of living and the value of education, These Streets is a sincere, heartfelt story with mostly well-rounded characters written in an uncomplicated style. I found the ending pretty rushed and weak, but overall it was a decent read.

I received a proof copy via @netgalley from the publisher @harpercollinsuk. It contained quite a few typos so hopefully these were picked up before publication! Many thanks to the author and publisher for the copy. As always, this is an honest review.*

My God this was a gripping and heartbreaking novel. The characters were wonderful and you could not help by empathize with them.

This is the second Luan Goldie book I've read along with Nightingale Point- she has such a talent for capturing tales of gentrification in east London and beyond. in 'These Streets' Jessica, a mum with two teenagers lives in a rented house that's suited them, its nothing fancy but they have space and its where they know. One day her landlord says that he's selling up because of the effect that the Olympic park redevelopment is having on house prices - he has to cash in while he can. At the same time, Jessica's job as a theatre outreach worker is under threat due to lack of funding; her relationship with her daughter is going pearshaped. And a potential new relationship with Ben is on the scene, but is it more trouble than its worth. Ben is dealing with his own issues as his ex-wife and Olivia his child have moved to Tenerife and he is struggling with how to keep the connection with Olivia.

The characters are so real, the issues of homelessness and job insecurity that Jessica and Ben face are absolutely true to life and heartbreaking, even more when you think about how many people are affected like this every day. This is a powerful story, told through the medium of a normal working family,

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the chance to read it.

Luan Goldie is masterful in her creation of multi-layered characters who are really likeable despite their obvious flaws and the interactions between these characters are just a joy to read. This is both a funny and moving story with a vivid sense of place and community. A book with real heart - I loved it and will be recommending it widely.

I really liked this book a lot, it touched on a lot of really relevant issues but without coming across as preachy or too sentimental. It centred around a pretty normal family (single mum and two kids) who after a string of bad luck find themselves without a home or jobs and how they are trying to live within these really tough times. I thought it really thoughtfully showed how just one or two things can go wrong and it can just destroy your life. I gave it four stars instead of five because the last maybe 10-15% of the book felt really rushed to be wrapped up. I think there were a few more conversations that needed to happen and a few big plot points I thought were coming were just kind of swept under the rug. I really loved the characters and felt really wrapped up in their world when I read it.

An absolutely brilliant novel about Jess, a struggling single mum with two children. When her landlord wants to sell her home she soon finds herself struggling financially and emotionally with so much going on in her life. Jess has to cope with financial difficulties, her children, a wayward brother, an elderly father and a possible new relationship. I found myself totally absorbed in the life of this incredible family. Can’t praise this book enough and highly recommend it.

I enjoyed this novel, but didn't love it. I think this was probably due to the focus on the relationship between the protagonist and a love interest, which I didn't love. The exploration of housing issues, family dynamics and work crisis was sensitively handled, and this I really did enjoy.

My 50 Word Review

A quiet, well-paced, thought-provoking, page-turner with alternate chapters from Ben and Jess smoothly moving the narrative on. Although the story revolves around their developing relationship, it is Goldie’s use of tensions that resonated for me - class, family, gentrification, the Arts, past and present- creating a truly modern British novel.

Luan Goldie paints an important picture about family and the difficulties some must face when everything seems to go wrong all at once, when everything is out of your control and the powerlessness consumes you. I never knew how difficult it could be to find housing and how unhelpful the council could be. And while Jess and her children had such a difficult time, I feel like everything went a little too wrong, there were too many downs and not enough ups. This book was a little too depressing and I couldn't really connect with any of the characters. The mystery surrounding Jess's brother, Dominic, was a bit overdone and there was nothing that really kept my attention. Overall, not my favorite book but an important one nonetheless.

I’d describe this book as realistic fiction. The author has done an amazing job at creating imaginary characters and situations that depict the world and society. The characters focus on themes of growing, self-discovery and confronting personal and social problems. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

This is Goldie’s third novel and she returns to East End of London, the backdrop to her debut “Nightingale Point”, where she grew up and taught in a primary school. Written during lockdown, Goldie paints a sharp picture of post Olympic Stratford, the dust is settling on a legacy that seems to be mainly a huge Westfield shopping mall, and West Ham’s former home the Boleyn Ground flattened to be replaced by a housing estate.

Goldie specializes in believable characters that push the story along with a gentle undercurrent of humor. There aren’t any sudden plot twists or shocking revelations – indeed it was perhaps a little too easy to see how the story would end. That said, single mother Jess, anxiety ridden Ben and Jess’s oddball father Wolff are always credible, often funny and drawn with enough sympathy to keep you hoping things will turn their way.

The publicity around the book has leant on Jess’s fight to avoid homelessness (first novel “Nightingale Point” was cited for it’s parallels to the Grenfell Tower disaster) and whilst Jess’s struggle to keep a roof over her head is the thread that holds the story together, it’s really much more a tale of mother’s struggle to keep her family safe over written by the ups and downs of family life and the possibility that Jess’s might just carve out a little happiness for her self. Goldie also makes sure that handyman Ben’s isn’t just a one dimensional mummy’s boy but instead a sensitive man bruised by life, prone to depression prompted by the distress of being separated from his daughter. When the video calls he treasures with his daughter are disrupted by an indifferent ex wife or a 6 year old’s sudden decision to take a poo it’s hard not to feel his angst and his helplessness.

Goldie has a knack for giving issues like homelessness and mental health a humane perspective, her characters both powerful and engaging without it resorting to preaching. Definitely worth a read.

A book exploring the current crisis of housing in the UK doesn’t sound like it would be the most riveting read. However, as in her previous novels she creates a compelling interpersonal drama with rich and sympathetic cast of characters as a microcosm with which to explore crucial social issues. Through the life of Jess Bakker and her teenage children, Goldie investigates family ties, the meaning of home and belonging, what is means to be successful and also what it means to fail, make a mistake and hit hard times, as well as how we treat those people in our society.

When Jess is told that her home of 12 years is being sold so her landlord can cash in, she is forced to confront the gentrification of her area, with rising costs and unaffordable rents. In the same week she is made redundant as the local community theatre she works at closes.

Meanwhile, Ben, our other protagonist, moves to East London as he tries to start over following his divorce, in which his ex has moved his daughter to Tenerife. He befriends elderly neighbour Wolf Bakker, Jess’s father – before realising he has a dark connection to the family from the past.

As Jess and Ben’s paths cross they must navigate both the past and their futures, as they come to terms with the changes in their lives. Goldie creates a heartwarming and compelling narrative that you can get completely lost in, with complex characters who all have their own lives and stories.

Goldie doesn’t sugarcoat or shy away from life’s hardships and her characters are flawed people who make mistakes as well as suffering injustice. You can’t help feeling frustrated not only at the situation of the characters but their actions, a testament to how grounded in realism this book is.

Goldie’s debut Nightgale Point demonstrated her position as an astute social commentator but also how she interweaves the social with the deeply personal, how we deal with trauma and tragedy. These Streets continues in this vein and establishes Goldie as a contemporary voice in British fiction. Her third book is not only an important reflection of key social issues but a beautiful story about modern families and hope for the future.

A sad story of a single mother of two teenagers trying to survive in modern London after her landlord tells her he's selling the apartment she's lived in for the last 10 years and she scrambles to find a new place to live.

I liked that the story portrayed complicated characters. Jess needs help to avoid being homeless but she doesn't see herself as "the other homeless people". This us vs them mentality felt realistic to me.

I didn't like how annoying her daughter is, and the fact that we don't really get to understand her: we only perceive her through her mother and this makes her very annoying (I guess we have all behaved like this at one point towards our mothers, so once again that's well done; but we knew what was going on inside us, right?).

The writing is down to earth: nothing flowery and straight to the point, which I think benefits this book.

Overall it's an enjoyable read on family and the housing crisis in London (and more generally the UK).

I enjoyed this book, a duel narrative about two people in the Stratford area of London. It wasn't the book I was expecting as the blurb focuses on homelessness when really it's more of a romance.

A minor criticism is the main character of Jess is too naive to be believable in places. I lived in this area before the London Olympics and everyone was talking about the changes and price increases. She definitely would've had someone say their rent had gone up!
It is good to highlight how a chain of events can tip people into a crisis and how gentrification has positives and negatives. It's a really good depiction of the area and the community and the more gritty areas behind the shiny new things.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

These Streets by Luan Goldie is a heartwarming story of family and new beginnings that will warm even the coldest of hearts. Beautifully written, it is a book with larger than life characters who steal your heart from the very first page.

Set on the streets of East London, These Streets tells the story of Jess, single mother to two teenage children who is doing everything she can to keep things together. So when she is suddenly made homeless she’s unsure of which way to turn. As things go from bad to worse and she struggles to get back on her feet, the last thing she needs is for her older brother, who she hasn’t seen for years, to make his presence felt once again.

And then there’s Ben, recently divorced and missing his young daughter who has moved abroad with her mother to begin a new life away from him. Moving back to the place he grew up in was never going to be easy, but even he could never have imagined just how complicated his life was about to become when he befriended the old man who lived across the street…

These Streets is filled to the brim with warmth and humour. With characters you can’t help but fall in love with, including the unforgettable Harold, it is a story that gets to the heart of modern family life. A searingly honest portrayal of life in Britain today, there is much more to this book than at first meets the eye and I thoroughly enjoyed every word of it.

Beautifully written by Luan Goldie, These Streets is very much a story with family at its heart. A tale of family love, loyalty, romance and new beginnings, this is a book that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

Simply gorgeous! I loved it.