a book
Society Within
Courttia Newland · 2001 · 288 pages
SOCIETY WITHIN takes us back to the Greenside Estate, West London, scene of Courttia Newland's ground-breaking and hugely successful first novel, THE SCHOLAR. Newly arrived on the estate is Elisha: sweet, bright, sassy and just eighteen. As Elisha negotiates some new territory with more than fair share of dark corners, we take in the vividly interlocking lives of the other Greensiders: cool, ambitious Valerie, with some bad secrets to deal with; Little Stacey, looking for his first girl; Orin, dealing, stealing and trying to stay away from anything too lethal.
Courttia Newland tells gripping stories from real lives - stories of dreamers and fighters, love and revenge, friendship and betrayal - in a language burning with energy, originality and conviction.
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Michaela Coel
“The first book I read that was adjacent to the world in which I lived. It’s about a girl on a west London housing estate, who is a conduit to the lives of all the other people in her orbit. Until reading this, I didn’t realize that books in which I could recognize people from my own life, could be written.”↗