I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning : A novel about love, class and friendship : NOW A MAJOR FILM

*NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING ANTHONY BOYLE, JOE COLE, JAY LYCURGO, DARYL MCCORMACK AND LOLA PETTICREW*

LONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2025

'Shows us how to love one another and hold on to what matters most' Tice Cin, author of Keeping the House

'Striking, moving, subtly radical' Guardian

'Confirms Goddard as one of the best writers of our time' Lucia Osborne-Crowley, author of The Lasting Harm

__________________________________________ Patrick, Shiv, Rian, Oli and Conor grew up together. They played together, skipped school together, and dreamt of everything they'd do with their lives.

Now they are thirty, and only Rian has made it out of the estate and moved away to another city, but his money doesn't stop him clinging to a vision of the past that is quickly slipping away. Oli is fading by the day, drinking and snorting his way through the endless boredom, while Conor has a baby on the way and a business plan he hopes will change everything. Patrick and Shiv are as in love as ever, but even they are rocked when an old secret opens up new wounds . . .

Bold, ambitious and stylistically striking, I See Buildings Fall like Lightning lays bare the ways that place and circumstance shape us, explores the redeeming and transforming beauty of friendship and examines the true limits of hope and forgiveness.

__________________________________________ MEDIA REVIEWS

Striking, moving, subtly radical. A multivocal narrative focusing on a working-class community in Birmingham ... reminiscent of Jon McGregor's most successful novels, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things and Reservoir 13 - Barney Norris, Guardian

Earthy, multivocal and accomplished throughout - Daily Telegraph

A virtuosic and devastating exploration of the relationships that bind us, and the places that always call us back. Tender and fierce in turn, Goddard writes about class and friendship with the deftest of touches - Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure

One of the most beautiful novels I've read in a very long time, full of rare elegance, sorrow, wit and warmth, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning tells the story of what's left when dreaming feels impossible - Ali Millar, author of The Last Days

What does it mean to claim one another, and to let one another go? Intimate with its surprises, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning has an honesty that shows us how to love one another and hold onto what matters most - Tice Cin, author of Keeping the House

This is a novel full of hard material but infused with dignity and originality. The language is swaggering, the character development deeply subtle ... genuinely beautiful - Niamh Campbell, author of We Were Young

A very affecting novel about working class love, friendship and grief. Bound by kinship and place, Goddard's multiple narrators create a story that is truly communal, demonstrating our interconnectedness and bravely rejecting the idea that the novel form is built to tell the stories of individuals only - Yara Rodrigues Fowler, author of There Are More Things