Our Struggle by Wayne Holloway

Paul, ex-tube driver and drinking partner of legendary Union leader Bob Crowe turns up at Essex University in the early 1980s haunted by the death of his colleague on the tracks. 

Thrown into the radical mix of Student Union life and the academic intoxication of post-modern theory taught by the likes of Ernesto Laclau, Jaques Derrida and a very young Slavoj Zizek, Paul befriends the novel’s unnamed narrator.

What follows is a riotous attempt to put the 20th Century to bed, as seen through the eyes of the foot soldiers of British history. From miners’ strikes to IRA collection buckets, ANC demonstrations and some very dodgy handling of Soviet money, Our Struggle climaxes with a devastating denouement in modern day Kurdistan. 

Holloway’s epic tale asks the big questions: does what we think, what we say, and what we do ever match up? Or are we destined to fall short of the ideals we think we cherish?

About the author

Wayne Holloway is a novelist and film maker from London. He is the author of the novel Bindlestiff (Influx 2019) and the collection Land of Hunger (Zero 2016). His latest film, From These Hands was released in 2021.

Praise for Our Struggle

‘Its invigorating cacophony a seditious thrill liable to leave the reader punch-drunk.’
– Guardian

‘If Our Struggle by Wayne Holloway isn’t my book of the year I can’t imagine what will be.’
– The Crack

‘There won’t be many novels published this year that’ll twist your melon more than Our Struggle.’
– Buzz Magazine

‘The narrator’s bracing sincerity imbues this sprawling and somewhat unwieldy novel with something like a through line in the form of gnawing political and existential doubt.’
– TLS

Paperback ISBN: 9781914391194

Ebook ISBN: 9781914391200

Publication date: September 2022

Formats: Paperback / eBook