Pity by Andrew McMillan

A SUNDAY TIMES BEST BOOK TO READ IN 2024
AN INDEPENDENT BEST FICTION TO READ IN 2024
A NEW STATESMAN FICTION HIGHLIGHT OF 2024
A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2024
AN i-D FICTION HIGHLIGHT TO BE EXCITED FOR IN 2024
 
The town was once a hub of industry. A place where men toiled underground in darkness, picking and shovelling in the dust and the sleck. It was dangerous and back-breaking work but it meant something.

Once, the town provided, it was important, it had purpose. But what is it now? Brothers Alex and Brian have spent their whole life in the town where their father lived and his father, too. Still reeling from the collapse of his personal life, Alex, is now in his middle age, and must reckon with a part of his identity he has long tried to mask. Simon is the only child of Alex and had practically no memory of the mines. Now in his twenties and working in a call centre, he derives passion from his side hustle in sex work and his weekly drag gigs.
 
Set across three generations of South Yorkshire mining family, Andrew McMillan's short and magnificent debut novel is a lament for a lost way of a life as well as a celebration of resilience and the possibility for change.
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Pity is the debut novel from the incredible poet Andrew McMillan. Andrew’s debut collection physical was the only ever poetry collection to win The Guardian First Book Award. His second collection, playtime, was published  in 2018 and won the inaugural Polari Prize. His third collection, pandemonium, was published in 2021, and 100 Queer Poems, the acclaimed anthology he edited with Mary Jean Chan, was published in 2022.