First published 2004
The pigeons of London have had enough. They watch from rooftops and statues as the city's thirtysomethings stumble through their messy lives below. Performance poets spill their hearts at open mic nights while hat vendors hawk their wares near Trafalgar Square. Bank robbers with middle class sensibilities plan their next heist. Love affairs bloom and wither among the urban chaos. Then the fried chicken incident at Trafalgar Square changes everything. What starts as another day in the capital becomes an all-out war between humans and birds. The pigeons are no ordinary city scavengers. They think, they plan, and they're furious. Murder follows the initial skirmish as the conflict escalates beyond anyone's control. Patrick Neate drops readers into this absurd battle where ordinary Londoners must confront an enemy they never saw coming. The city becomes a battlefield where the stakes are both ridiculous and deadly serious. This is urban life turned upside down, where the creatures everyone ignores finally demand attention through violence and chaos.
Genres: adventure, british-literature, action, 21st-century
Vibes: absurd, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, ordinary-people-in-extraordinary-circumstances
Setting: London, Trafalgar Square
Period: 21st-century
401 pages · Kindle Edition · Penguin
Content warnings: violence