This book found me rather than it being the
other way around. Captivated by its title, I picked it up in the public library
in Imperia, the town on the Italian Riviera where my family has a tiny flat (so
tiny it’s actually a small room – not even classifiable as a studio).
In spite of all its anger, the book made me
happy. Because the main story is about waking up early to go for a run, about
competing, about training even when it’s so cold you can’t feel your fingers
and it’s so dark you can barely see the ground you are stomping on. All that,
in my case, chasing the dream of one day finally breaking 17 minutes on a 5k in
a small park in South East London...
But the book is more than just that. The other
short stories in the collection also deserve their due credit as they are probably
the most credible portraits of the life of the working class in the Midlands
and Northern England after the end of the Second World War that I have ever
read.
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