Why read Black Car Burning?

Book cover of Black Car Burning

Book description

How do we trust each other?

Alexa is a young police community support officer whose world feels unstable. Her father is estranged and her girlfriend is increasingly distant. Their polyamorous relationship - which for years felt so natural - is starting to seem strained. As she patrols Sheffield she senses…

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Topics

Polyamory

Genres

Literary fiction

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Why read it?

1 author picked Black Car Burning as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

J.S. Watts

Author

I found this a poetic and somehow personal novel, though it is a work of fiction.

Helen Mort uses her knowledge of climbing and Sheffield, alongside her lyrical writing skills as an award-winning poet, to create an atmospheric and contemporary story of people and their complicated relationships. Sheffield is a character in its own right, as are the multiple personified landscapes that comment, like a vast Greek chorus, on the tiny lives of humanity and the world around them.

I was entranced by the juxtaposition of gritty urban life, with the mythical fantasy of contemplative landscapes.

From J.S.'s 3 favorite reads in 2023.