Keeping the house

"The Turkish variety are prized for their enlarged leaf bud, that's where we put the heroin... Imagine a cabbage: at its centre is North London's Turkish heroin trade, and the overlapping leaves are the stories of its players. There's Damla, a Turkish-Cypriot girl growing up in Tottenham, and her mother Ayla, who moved there from North Cyprus in the aftermath of the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots. There's Mehmet, a mover in the trade, and Ali, who's got big hopes for Ayla. A bewitching debut that lifts the lid on a covert world, Keeping the House is a dynamic, electric introduction to a fascinating new voice"