The Dirty South is an adventurous, compelling novel set in Brixton, twenty years after the last race riots. The story is about Dennis Huggins, who is finding that options for young black males are very limited, although he has both working parents in a family home, but not many of his friends are that lucky. Such as his best friend Noel Gordon, whose mother works in a checkout and smokes grass in front of her children. At first they both start stealing petty things such as sweets from the local newsagent, but before long, unable to resist peer pressure, they begin to sell grass at school. They soon find themselves going from one bad situation to another, fighting rival crews from nearby neighbourhoods, looking for love in all the wrong estates, even as he buries his fear beneath an armour of streetwise cool.

The story is very interesting and gripping from the first page. It is a searing account of a young man’s attempt to do the right thing during tough times.

by Petreece Duffus