High and Low by Amanda Craig

I love Amanda Craig's books, but this did take a little while to get into. There are a lot of characters, many of them writers, many of them not very nice. Once it got going, though, it was riveting.

Tensions in this very mixed part of North London are running high, and when they become focused on a hostel for asylum seekers, things start to boil over. Violence, rioting and looting suddenly controls the streets and shops of the neighbourhood. A disparate group of people - writers, and others - are trapped inside a cafe. Meanwhile a young boy, Zahi, is running away from big trouble....

Amanda does a careful job of representing - non-violent - views on both sides of the "asylum seekers" issue, avoiding any temptation to demonise. 

She's great at the state-of-the-nation stuff, but there's also a lot in here about writing and the writer's life. Or death, in some instances....

Amanda's novels are all interlinked to some extent and I've resolved to read them all in order from the beginning - I've already started her first, Foreign Bodies. I know some of the characters in High and Low have featured before - at least one of them in aforementioned Foreign Bodies. 

Excellent read.