Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley
‘And I’m just fed up with the hypocrisy. People have sex for loads of different reasons. And, well, we have sex for money.’
Precious didn’t ask to be the figurehead of a movement. But when the brothel where she lives and works is under threat of demolishment from its billionaire owner, she has no choice but to stand up against the gentrification that is rapidly changing her Soho community. Precious’s livelihood (and the livelihood of the women she lives with) isn’t the only thing at stake. The brothel is the centre of a neighbourhood composed of dying restaurants, struggling artists and activists, people experiencing homelessness and drug addiction, and men with dark pasts who populate the run-down pubs nearby.
Fiona Mozley has crafted a novel that is Dickensian in scope but without all the exhaustive (and exhausting) detail. Hot Stew is populated by a broad cast of instantly memorable characters ranging across the entirety of the social spectrum. This Soho is a bustling, dirty, exciting, seedy and, at moments, fantastical place. It is a much more intriguing portrayal of the infamous London city sector than I personally remember – the Soho I worked near during 2014–2016 seemed to mostly consist of themed cocktail bars and farm-to-table vegan restaurants.
Is it possible to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize and still be underrated? Mozley has fashioned a completely different story here to her 2017 Booker-nominated debut Elmet. I can only hope that she will continue this trajectory of constantly reinventing herself and her writing, reimagining what contemporary fiction can and should do. She deserves a much larger readership.
