Benjamin Markovits grew up mostly in Texas and London. He has published eight award-winning adult novels. He lives with his family in London, where he teaches creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.
"You Don't Have to Live Like This takes a match to a house full of
gas fumes. It made me feel like I had experienced a series of
episodes I would normally only encounter via the news...a
heartbreaking portrait of criminal justice." - Karl Taro Greenfeld,
author of Triburbia and co-author of Dr. J: The Autobiography
"Engrossing .... Confrontations between Smith and Jamestown
residents, along with other racially charged incidents, ensue,
culminating in a trial and national media storm that for many
readers will call to mind recent events in Ferguson, Mo., Staten
Island, N.Y., and North Charleston, S.C., among others....
Markovits writes boldly about some of our era's most important-and
most delicate-subjects." - Publishers Weekly
"Engrossing .... will call to mind recent events in Ferguson, Mo.,
Staten Island, N.Y., and North Charleston, S.C., among others....
Markovits writes boldly about some of our era's most important-and
most delicate-subjects." - Publishers Weekly
"Though the book's events are set in 2011, the race and class
conflicts chronicled here feel as up-to-the-minute as a cable
network's "Breaking News" bulletin, though far more thoughtful and
better examined than the latter... So few fiction writers deal
directly with street-level economic and cultural conflict in the
present day that you're grateful that You Don't Have to Live Like
This exists at all." - USA Today
"As up-to-the-minute as a cable network's "Breaking News" bulletin,
though far more thoughtful and better examined...So few fiction
writers deal directly with street-level economic and cultural
conflict in the present day that you're grateful YOU DON'T HAVE TO
LIVE LIKE THIS exists at all." - USA Today
"Markovits's prose is clean and restrained, and his ear for the way
his characters speak is rarely off." - Christian Lorentzen,
Vulture
"Terrifically readable ... a sweeping story of gentrification,
class war and racism in America." - Literary Review
"With the national media roiling with articles about race, justice
and class, particularly in that struggling Michigan city, this
story could not be more timely... Markovits is a master at
describing the devastated and deserted streets of Detroit." -
Washington Post
"Compelling...Markovits is a spot-on observer of speech patterns
and subconsciously revealing behavioral tics, and it's the
portrayal of complex relationships that keeps the plot moving. The
novel is populated by intriguing characters...a bold work of
fiction with a firm real-world moral." - Financial Times
"An impressive new novel...Perhaps Markovits's fictional Obama, who
makes the speech that gives the novel its title, is right that
Americans don't have to live 'like this, ' divided and distrustful,
but it will take more than cheap real estate and internet
utopianism to make change possible." - Laura Miller, The
Guardian
"A considered examination of tense race relations." - Lucy Scholes,
The Observer (London)
"This is fiction writing that is alive in your hand...Markovits' is
a voice as attuned to the soul as it is to the barrios and hoods,
the kind that forms synaptic connections without ever seeming to
try." - The Independent
"A subtle and finely poised novel...shrewdly observant...Markovits
uses Detroit as a rebuke to certain forms of American idealism, and
does so with nuance...Characters are gradually deepened and made
complex, leaving the reader complicit in a degree of judgmental
behavior." - The Spectator
"A very smart book, with vividly drawn characters and densely woven
themes" - Telegraph (London)
"Bold and brilliant...Benjamin Markovits follows Charles Dickens
and Tom Wolfe in creating a vividly real urban backdrop against
which a fine, provocative story can be told." - Prospect
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