{"id":431,"date":"2015-01-07T19:10:53","date_gmt":"2015-01-07T19:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/?page_id=431"},"modified":"2015-03-30T11:55:55","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T11:55:55","slug":"before-the-fire","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/before-the-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Before The Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"final\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My second novel, Before The Fire<\/em>, is published by Picador.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can buy online from Waterstones<\/a>, Foyles<\/a>, Blackwells<\/a>…<\/p>\n

The Story<\/h1>\n

It\u2019s June 2011.\u00a0 Best friends Stick and Mac are two boys on the verge of becoming men, their sights set on escaping their north Manchester estate for the beaches of southern Spain.\u00a0 They\u2019ve bought a beaten-up car on eBay, they\u2019ve got a route planned, they\u2019re going to meet girls, work in bars and maybe never come home . . .<\/p>\n

But the night before they\u2019re due to leave, Mac ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and suddenly Stick\u2019s going nowhere.\u00a0 His mum doesn\u2019t want him to leave the house, his dad\u2019s desperate to be his best friend, and everyone seems to have an opinion on what he should do next \u2013 except Stick himself.<\/p>\n

Then he meets J and she might just be everything he needs.\u00a0 But Stick is still burning with rage and grief, and the August riots are just around the corner . . .<\/p>\n

Inspired by the riots that swept the UK in the summer of 2011, Before the Fire is a bold, thought-provoking and compassionate take on a piece of our all too recent history.\u00a0 It\u2019s a novel about friendship and family, the shocking effects of a sudden tragedy, and the enduring power of love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/h1>\n

What people are saying:<\/h1>\n

‘The book revels in the diversity and mystery of young people. It never tries to imitate the \u201cinnit\u201d-ness of other authors who fling out slang as a substitute for character development. Instead, Butler\u2019s prose is microscopic, delicate and honest. […] Instead of trying to condone or condemn all young people, Butler is more interested in telling a human story about grief and how that can manifest itself in unflinching anger, no matter our age.’ Nikesh Shukla, The Independent<\/em><\/p>\n

‘Butler is brilliant at capturing Stick\u2019s inner teenage turmoil, his anger, his feelings of futility, the terrible depths of his grief and his easy contempt for adults who clumsily try to help.’ Claire Allfree, Daily Mail<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018A brilliant, punchy and utterly contemporary novel which reminds readers of the vitality and resilience of the novel – and the urgency of the issues it explores through its beautifully realised and notably passionate characters. Before the Fire is a novel about what it’s like to live now, created by a writer with an unerring eye and a heart which is both humane and discerning.\u2019 Bidisha, journalist, broadcaster and author of Asylum and Exile<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2018The portrait of a young man on the edge, consumed by rage and grief, is beautifully drawn and captivates the reader so well that as the story builds towards the climax the tension is almost unbearable. I liked too the flashes of humour and poignancy in the novel which reads like a bittersweet love letter to Manchester.\u2019 Cath Staincliffe, author of Ruthless<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018To read Before the Fire<\/em> is to walk several miles in other people\u2019s shoes, such is the empathetic nature of Sarah Butler\u2019s writing . . . It\u2019s a tender, powerful, affecting novel, and one I enjoyed greatly\u2019 Emylia Hall, author of The Book of Summers<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018A moving portrayal of a country in crisis, getting under the skin of both the issues and the people affected by them\u2019 Emma Chapman, author of How To Be A Good Wife<\/em><\/p>\n

‘Too few novels describe working class lives and the context and reasons for their anger and hopelessness. I found the characters in\u00a0Before the Fire<\/em> real and authentic and was rooting for them throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed it.’ Alex Wheatle, author of Brixton Rock<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018<\/em>An extraordinary novel, set in a world that isn’t often written about with such a profound sense of understanding and truth.\u00a0 Stick is a beautifully drawn complex, likeable, understandable<\/em> \u00a0young man, living on the edge and struggling with making sense of it all . . . Brilliant . . . A stirring read\u2019 Mavis Cheek<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My second novel, Before The Fire, is published by Picador.   You can buy online from Waterstones, Foyles, Blackwells… The Story It\u2019s June 2011.\u00a0 Best friends Stick and Mac are two boys on the verge of becoming men, their sights … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-431","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":490,"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/431\/revisions\/490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.urbanwords.org.uk\/sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}