The Lowlife (Faber Editions) - Paperback

by Alexander Baron (Author), Iain Sinclair (Introduction by)

One man gambles on the dogs and his own life in this rediscovered Jewish post-war classic of London's seedy underbelly, introduced by Iain Sinclair.

"A novel and author richly deserving of renewed attention."--Kirkus starred review ⭐

Never give up hope before the dogs have crossed the finishing-line.

Harryboy Boas is a lowlife gambler. When he's not at the track, he lives in a Hackney boarding house, reading Zola, eating salt beef, pressing trousers and repressing wartime memories. But when a new family moves into the apartment downstairs, his life starts to unravel and Harryboy soon finds himself sinking into a murky East End underworld where violence, guilt and gangsters are the inevitable result for those who cannot pay their dues.

A celebrated cult classic, The Lowlife brilliantly evokes post-war East London - dog tracks, sandwich shops, tenements, sex workers, newly arrived West Indians and Jews leaving for Finchley - all seen through the tragicomic eyes of Harryboy, our picaresque rogue hero suffering from 'existential burn-out in the shadow of the Holocaust' (Iain Sinclair) and driven to bet, brag and beg to survive.

Author Biography

Iain Sinclair has lived in Hackney since 1968. He is the award-winning author of numerous critically acclaimed books about London, including The Last London, Lights Out for the Territory, London Orbital, Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire and London Overground. He won the Encore Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Downriver.