The Lowlife (Faber Editions)

The Lowlife (Faber Editions) - Paperback

$16.15
Sale price  $16.15 Regular price 
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The Lowlife (Faber Editions)

The Lowlife (Faber Editions) - Paperback

by Alexander Baron
$16.15
Sale price  $16.15 Regular price 

Book Overview

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.

ISBN9780571393473
Author Alexander Baron
PublisherFaber & Faber
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedMay 2026
LanguageENG- English
Pages256
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

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About Alexander Baron

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.

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