'And then none of it happened.

All of the lives we were sure we would have. All of the freedom and the fever. None of it happened.'

Rian, Patrick, Shiv, Oli and Conor grew up together on the same housing estate. Best friends for as long as anyone could remember, none of them could imagine a life without any of the others and each dreamed of a big life beyond the bounds of the estate. Years later, Rian, the grifter of the group, is the only one who ever made it out, the others resigned to a lifetime of dead end jobs, disappointing relationships and bad choices, before eventually growing old and dying in the same estate as their parents. I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning follows the group through the beginning of their thirties, as they try to figure out if they still mean the same to each other as they once did, whilst navigating parenthood, poverty, addiction and finding purpose and pleasure within the lives they have built.

'There are days when I think I should just stop coming back altogether. Just cut the guide rope. But I can't leave it be. When I have nowhere else to go, I come here. Here is where I come to find things.'

I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning can be read in two ways: are the increasingly strained friendships between the characters an allegory for the inexorable urban decay of their hometown which provides the backdrop for the story? Or is it the other way round? Certainly Rian's philosophising (see above quote) could be taken either way. When he loses his way in his new life, he seeks comfort in the friends and the place where he last remembers feeling himself.

At its core, this is a quiet, beautiful story of friendship, and I was particularly moved by the gentleness with which the male characters describe each other, something which is not typically associated with male friendship. The author uses the motif of shared memories to great effect throughout the story, with various characters recalling episodes from their shared history from different perspectives. The reader is left to contemplate the meaning of this device for themselves - if an incident seems more important to one person than others, is that a sign of their waning connection? Is the shared importance of a memory a mark of that connection's endurance?

The narrative is infused with bleak humour, from Rian's observation that Oli, an addict who has lost a lot of weight since his friend last saw him, 'looked a bit like a baseball bat with a sad face drawn on it', to Patrick's declaration that 'Not all shit pubs have flat roofs, but all pubs with flat roofs are shit.' We can infer that this humour is variously used as a distraction from uncomfortable thoughts or conversations, a way of reinforcing shared experiences, or a coping mechanism in difficult times, as when Shiv muses that Patrick's refusing to speak to her for four days is maddening because they can't discuss 'who is doing what when, who is picking this thing up from that place, who has spoken to that person and who has filled in that form that we both agreed one of us needed to fill'. The way the author combines this tone with unfiltered emotions makes the characters feel much more real and defined. Shiv, Patrick's wife and the sole female among the main characters, is particularly beautifully written, her ponderings on relationships and parenthood both witty and profound.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

Keiran Goddard's previous book, Hourglass, was one of the most intense, interesting and unusual books I've read.

Therefore, I was very keen to read I See Buildings Fall like Lightning, though considering it unlikely that it could match Hourglass.

Sadly, this is the case for me, though the new novel is very competent and thought-provoking and is likely to introduce him to a much wider readership.

I was reminded quite often of Mayflies, though it is much more aware of the problems of poverty, lack of housing and so on. Yet, there has to be a big suspension of disbelief that Rian the lad from the estate who did well, can maintain such genuine relationships with those who stayed behind.

Very well written and populated by sympathy -inducing characters, it's a good, crafted novel but I suspect even better is to come.

I've read a lot of good reviews for I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning from the book-based accounts I follow and I felt like it'd be a book I'd enjoy as well. I requested the ARC for this one quite close to publication, and after a couple of days I figured it was too close to the book's release to get the chance to read. That is not how it went; on Wednesday evening I got the approval notification...the day before publication!

Following five thirty-somethings who've known each other since childhood, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning is an observation-based book that shares its chapters between each of the five characters. We’re on the periphery as they live their lives, come together, fall apart, explore their pasts together, and question their futures.

In many of the reviews I’ve read for this book the word ‘quiet’ has been used, and I’m inclined to agree with that observation. There’s a vibe of being just on the edge of the goings-on, observing the interactions and being taken along as their individual stories are woven together as life meanders on. The outlook of the five and their musings on their aspirations, adulthood, making money, staying in place, moving away, and everything else that’s discussed in the book, is very reflective and real. There are so many wry observations and downright funny comments it’s like being talked to by friends.

Choosing not to name where I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning is set is a clever choice by Goddard. Chances are we all know these places, these people, these surroundings, particularly if you grew up in an inner city. This could be Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds… I realise those places are northern, so I suppose subconsciously I’ve placed this story in a northern environment. Possibly because I am northern it could be a biased skew, but to me the five do not read as being southern characters.

I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning isn’t overly plot driven, but doesn’t feel cumbersome like some other books in this style. Everyday life is mundane, but this book is not. It’s beautifully written and each character has a defined voice, explaining how their lives have been entwined for decades, and detailing the days they’ve spent together from childhood to present day. Not everyone is on the same path, as we all know from growing up, and often growing apart from the friends we had in our younger years. Some ‘escape’, some stay put, some want to better their lives, others are happy with where they are.

As mentioned, the book isn’t particularly plot driven, and I know this isn’t for everyone. But this felt like a catch up with pals for a specific snippet of time, drifting into each other’s lives, then drifting back out again as happens in reality. Much as I enjoyed the book in the moment I don't think it'll be one that sticks in memory or will have revisit value, so my rating reflects those elements too.

I See Building Fall Like Lightning by Keiran Goddard is a gripping and moving novel. The story follows five friends who grew up together and dreamt about what the future held; Oli, Patrick, Rian, Conor and Shiv. The book is constructed of short, interwoven chapters from each character’s perspective. The story has a fast and fluid pace as each character reflects on the past whilst trying to hold onto the fabric of the present. Now thirty, Rian left the city and made his fortune but the money doesn’t stop him from thinking of the past, his friends and the draw of his youth. But, the city and his vision of it is changing, Oli is trying to temper his addiction, Conor is trying to construct a future with a baby on the way and Shiv and Patrick are still in love but threatened by a past revelation. The portrait of their friendship is the essence of this book how they still fight and care for each other is beautifully illustrated by their interlocking narratives and heartfelt reflections. It takes a little bit of time to pick up the threads of each character and some felt more deeply drawn than others but overall this is a powerful novel of friendship, love, grief, growing up and forgiveness. For fans of contemporary literary fiction from an author I will look out for in the future 4 Stars ✨.

A moving story about five friends who grew up on an estate together. What happens when one makes it big and ends up rich? How can they all maintain their friendships?
Slow but thought-provoking and beautifully written, quite raw and tragic in places, highlighting difficult lives and the struggle of being a parent in a poor community.

I loved the writing and the honest descriptions. Will certainly look out for more from Keiran Goddard.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is beautifully written and I enjoyed the various character’s viewpoints. The voices could have been more clearly delineated, and it is not strongly plot driven, but well worth reading.

It's clear that Keiran Goddard has real talent as a literary fiction author. Goddard has mastered the art of turning the mundane of everyday life into beautiful prose laden with a string of literary devices.

There is fine balance to get right in literary fiction; beautiful prose and insightful character study combined with a compelling enough plot to carry the reader through to the end. For me, the right balance hasn't quite been struck with this novel. There is something missing which stops this being a real page-turner, perhaps the pace is too slow without any direct speech and the burden of too many POVs meaning we hear about the same events one too many times.

The characters are well thought through and their actions match their personal situations, however I felt that this book could have benefited from an omniscient narrator rather than first person. There was something that continued to remind me throughout that these people were not real and I've put that down to the unrealistic eloquence of the characters' thoughts in comparison to their lifestyles and social backgrounds.

Overall this is a solid debut novel but it's real power lies in Goddard's writing style rather than a gripping plot or perfect characterisation.

This is a story about decay.
Five dear friends who have grown up together are celebrating one's 30th birthday. Now they find themself halfway through their lives and they all realize how unhappy they are. Rian is somehow shocked to find himself an adult, not a careless teen anymore. He turned out to be a successful entrepreneur but he is lonely and is well aware of how his not-so-successful friends are feeling about him. He doesn´t fit into the rich world or the poor world. Patrick is stuck in a meaningless job, he feels like an underdog and a loser, especially since he was once this promising golden boy, who had a chance for a bright future as he got into university. His dreams were shattered when his mom died. Shiv, Patrick's wife, always wanted a bigger life, but as a mother of two young girls, she´s unemployable and feels that she´s wasting her life. Oli is a fun boy, but his funny side is a masque that covers his addiction. Conor tries to be a good man, a good father and a good husband. But there is a dark and scary monster deep inside him waiting to get out there.
These 30+ years old friends grew up on one estate in England. Over the years they have been witnessing its decay. First was the library. It´s gone now. All the pubs in the area are gone too, except The Trident in which they meet. Then the community center disappeared. One by one everything falls apart. Rian feels sentimental about their home estate and is thinking about investing in it. But, as Patrick says: "He doesn´t get that there´s nothing left. Not here at least. It´s nothing, just the middle, where nothing meets a bit more nothing." This emptiness is everywhere. Both outside and inside, because these people feel exactly this. They´re stuck in their lives with very little if any hope for a change. Rian: "My days had been getting emptier and emptier. I only wanted money so I could have a different life."
This story is pretty sad, but it also brings hope. Oli, who got in a way crossed off by others proves that with a strong will, everyone can turn their life to a better way. In their collapsed and almost forgotten estate something is being built. A new block of flats is rising like a Phenix from ashes. It´s not perfect, but it´s a positive change. It brings jobs, and jobs bring income.

This is a beautiful piece of prose with sentences that are somehow lyrical and straight-to-the -point at the same time. This is a rare type of writing. The book itself is well thought through and thought provoking. Keiran Goddard is a name worth remembering.

This was a beautiful , emotional and powerful short read. I raced through it and had to go back and check how long it was as the author fits so much into 250 pages.

I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning is the story of five friends who grew up on English housing estate. The friendships shift and change when they become adults despite their wishes and intentions. Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the group. Nothing happens and everything happens as we learn of these men's lives , influences, decisions and dreams.

A thoughtful immersive read that you would read in a couple of sittings but that will stay with you. Recommend.

4 star.

Keiran Goodard is a published poet and also runs a think tank and is a writer and speaker on areas such as worker’s rights/the future of work.

His debut novel “Hourglass”, which I summarised as a tale of (life)-time, love and loss, laughter and labour, and as a masculine version of the elliptical and aphoristic writing of female authors such as Jenny Offill, was deservedly longlisted for the last-to-date Desmond Elliott Prize for Debut Fiction in 2022 as it was an ambitious debut - one which tried to be different and largely succeeded on its own terms.

This his second novel is a quieter and less deliberately distinctive book, although again shows the author’s emerging strengths as a novelist.

It is the story of five childhood friends, taking place over the period after one of them turn thirty. Four of the friends live in the same poor urban area where they grew up, the fifth has moved both to London and to a much higher wealth bracket. The story is told in short first party narrative chapters which move around between them – often describing the same event from different perspectives.

The style of the book is most marked by its interiority – almost all of the writing is the characters thoughts and on the very limited occasions when reported speech is included it is distinctively only snippets of one side of a dialogue.

The five are:

Patrick and Shiv – together since school days and now with two young children. Patrick, the social-warrior/conscience of the group is working reluctantly in a gig economy job as a Deliveroo-style cycle rider. Shiv is, simply by her sex, something of an outsider to the group and I would say largely marginalised early on in the novel. My impression from both his novels is that the author is far more comfortable writing male voices, although Shiv takes a wider role later on.

Conor – working as a builder (like his father before him) he is the most unpredictable of the group, prone since school days to violence and outbursts, but now trying to settle down as his girlfriend is pregnant.

Oli – always the one sourcing drugs for the group and now not just a full time dealer but struggling with his own addiction to the products he sells (although he feels more in control of it than his friends treat him as though he is).

Rian: the trader of the group from a young age (including the rather cliched selling of drinks at a mark up in the playground), he took his trading abilities to London and in a rather unspecified and for me unconvincing way made his riches (enough that he can afford to mentally write of an investment in a flat development Conor is leading). He has a complex relationship with Patrick and Shiv. Initially he functions very much as the external observer of his home City (quite literally – as he likes to rent rooms in high rise hotels where he can observe the changes in the City) and his friends. Over time he is drawn back more to the City and his friends as things don’t work out in London.

I would say that the characters voices are distinguishable by their attitudes and pre-occupations rather than their style – this book is at the opposite end of the spectrum to the Booker (and Nero/Folio/Irish Book awards) shortlisted “The Bee Sting” and the latter’s very deliberate attempt to give each of that book’s family members very distinctive styles of narration.

I would also note that each of the voices could perhaps seem a little too thoughtful/self-aware/introspective for what we know of their external projection
Cleverly in one case one character calls out that trait in another, Shiv on Patrick: " [he] can be the quietest person on a night out and then something somebody says will ignite him and the sentences come rolling out of him. And you know they've been brewing for ages because they come out in reams, like fully formed paragraphs. I love to see him in full flow like that, and I love to see other people see it for the first time. I like to watch people watch him, watch them see a bit of his inner world, just for a minute or two"

And further this very idea fits one of the key themes of the novel: the difference between what we think and what we say/how we allow others to perceive us – particularly when they have known us for a long time like the five friends each of whom realises over the course of the novel that they know much less of each other than they think, and that they themselves have allowed their "masks to become their faces" (to quote a key monologue in the book).

Although the tragedy at the heart of the book is that the one character who has perhaps not really fundamentally changed is the one that the four other friends find out too late has not changed as much as they have assumed.

Overall, I felt this was a novel that was enjoyable to read, but in a way which was almost deceptively simple as it was only really on writing the review that I came to appreciate the subtlety of what the author is doing.

This relatively short book looks at the struggles of a group of inner city friends from childhood and packs such a powerful punch. Told from the perspectives of each friend, it's well written, poignant and deeply moving. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A story that about the difficulties of trying to succeed at life or at least to keep your head above water and to stay true to your friends. Growing up in a poor part of town the five friends are living different lifestyles but are trying to hold on to their original friendship when it would be too easy to let them slide. The various relationships are sensitively examined and the writing gives interesting insights into the minds of each of the characters.

Beautifully observed emotional novel

A group of Young British, male friends tell of their life and relationships
Olly is a heroin addict and drug dealer,Patrick is a food delivery driver with a wife and, two children
Rian has a job and is making money and lending Connor money to build flats in their area
I enjoyed the way that a long-term relationships love was described as really looking at your partner when you sit opposite to each other during a train journey .
The author has a way of writing about the minutia of life in a way that is instantly recognisable The jobs of the young people are highly topical with one of them, being a food delivery driver this zero hours contract life and the poverty associated with it is described well in the novel
I have to admit that I spent most the time in the first half of the book, trying to work out where it’s set. I eventually decided that it must be set in Ireland as lots of talk of cathedrals and Catholic religion . ultimately reading the authors own acknowledgements at the back of the novel, I discovered that it was actually probably setting in Birmingham . I don’t know why I found not knowing where book was set quite distracting .
The author has the ability to describe characters perfectly, and you feel that you know these young people well by the end of the novel, their relationships with each other, and the way that this has influenced their life choices was well described and felt real.

Ultimately, this is a book where not very much happens but you see the way the men develop during the novel in the eyes of their friends. This feels real, and was deeply moving
It also has a clear easily red writing style, and the novel was an enjoyable read
I originally copy on NetGalley UK, the book is published in the UK on the 8th of February 2024 by little Brown book group UK
This review will appear on NetGalley, UK ,Goodreads and my book blog bionicsSarahsbooks.wordpress.com
After publication, the review will also appear on Amazon, UK

I have been desperate to read this book for months, ever since I'd come across it, and so was overjoyed that I got an early copy.

We have five main characters: Conor, Oli, Patrick, Rian, and Shiv, and so we see everything that goes on from one of their viewpoints.

It was unusual to read a book like this that followed a group of men (Shiv being the only female). Usually, in my experience, a book that follows multiple POVs of a friendship group and their childhood and futures etc. is usually told from a female perspective, so it was a great thing to read as it felt so fresh.

It had a sense of Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagen about it. Not in terms of the storyline, but in the way of writing. It's hard to explain, you sort of have to read it yourself, but the way the words made me feel was very similar, this sense that you're on the cusp of something, whether it be good or bad.

There's no real speech in it. It's a narrative split into 5 POVs, but it feels like the story is being told after it happens. It is written in the first person - I, me, my etc - but the way it's written, the lack of clear dialogue and whatnot makes it feel like it is someone else telling this story.

For me, there wasn't much of a plot, but that's fine by me. I know people will argue with me on that point and I can see why, because all books have to have a plot of some sort to keep the book flowing, otherwise it would just be a random combination of words. But I am more focussed on the characters. It is a great character study of people who just so happen to be going through life. And I'm fine with that. I enjoy getting to know them and all their flaws.

I admit I am a little conflicted. I'm not sure what I was expecting from it, and yet it still ended up being something I didn't expect, which I know doesn't make sense, but I'm not sure how to explain it. It as the heart and the soul that I was expecting, but maybe it's the plot, the format perhaps the threw me slightly.

It's not an easy book to read - or it wasn't for me. It's harsh and raw and honest, and that's not always easy to swallow. There's everything from drug and alcohol abuse, to employment worries, financial concerns, parenting concerns, and relationship difficulties, as well as trying to find your sense of belonging, togetherness, and purpose. It is quite uncomfortable at times, and yet it's still a really powerful piece of writing, and overall I think I was right to be so eager to read it.

I'd say the first half is slower than the second; it's filled with scene setting and character creating and leading you into this world. And then the second half we really get stuck in and it becomes more fast paced and emotional and more affecting.

I will say that if you're after a laugh-a-minute, more warming, cheery, light-hearted kind of read, then this is NOT the book to read. It's wonderful and creative and interesting to read, but happy it is not.

This was an unexpected book for me. I found it by chance on NetGalley and the title interested me. Within the first few chapters, I was taken aback by the quiet beauty and emotion of this novel. Following the lives of a group of friends who have grown up poor, this book takes the reader on a journey through their lives, the struggles, the grief and the hope. It’s written in a way that makes you think and leaves you feeling hollow, but reminded of the hope in the world. I really enjoyed reading this, it was a beautiful and poignant story.

I see buildings fall like lightning by Keiran Goddard follows the lives of 5 childhood friends - Rian, Oli, Conor, Patrick and Shiv - as they navigate lives as adults, growing apart but desperate to stay close.

Rian has made it out of the small town where they grew up, but inevitably finds himself drawn back in despite making a success of himself. Oli, once handsome, has been savaged by drugs and has not lived up to the promise he once had. Conor is desperate to make a success of himself and prove everyone wrong and Patrick and Shiv are desperately trying to keep their relationship alive.

If that sounds grim, then it is. At 256 pages, this book packs so much life into a relatively short space. The book centres on the complex relationships of the 5 main characters yet there is very little dialogue in the novel. Told from alternating perspectives, the lack of dialogue really draws you into the mind of each character and the struggles each of them face, both alone and together.

At what point do you let go of the past and those who you grew up with? Should you ever let them go, in fact, can you let them go? These are the complex questions which Goddard poses in a brutal, hard hitting yet honest way which will resonate with many people who have grown up desperate to be someone better.

Thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK, Abacus, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. One of my favourite books of the year.

I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning is an insightful novel about male friendships and how those relationships change and develop over the years.