Keeping the House

Shortlisted for The British Book Awards 2022 Discover Book of the Year

Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize for Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour 2022

Longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2022

Shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2022

Cabbages ... The Turkish variety are prized for their enlarged leaf bud, that's where we put the heroin ... There's a stash of heroin waiting to be imported, and no one seems sure what to do with it ...

But Ayla's a gardener, and she has a plan. Offering a fresh and funny take on the machinery of the North London heroin trade, Keeping the House lifts the lid on a covert world thriving just beneath notice: not only in McDonald's queues and men's clubs, but in spotless living rooms and whispering kitchens.

Spanning three generations, this is the story of the women who keep their family - and their family business - afloat, juggling everything from police surveillance to trickier questions of community, belonging and love.