--- title: Who They Was: 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 description: Find out why "Who They Was" by Gabriel Krauze is on TIME's list of the must-read books from this year. canonical: https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120663/who-they-was/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-11-29T13:15:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:58:20.291Z og:title: 'Who They Was' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 og:description: Here's why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120663/who-they-was/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'Who They Was' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Who They Was' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 twitter:description: Here's why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 29, 2021 # Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  Londoner Gabriel Krauze started jotting down notes for his Booker Prize-longlisted debut, _Who They Was_, while he was deep in the underbelly of London’s violent crime world. Nearly two decades later, he turned his harrowing experiences into a book. The barely fictionalized novel is a slang-heavy and propulsive first-person account of Krauze’s late teens and twenties spent witnessing and sometimes participating in violence and crime around the public housing developments in Northwest London. It’s a tough read—Krauze holds nothing back when describing so much brutality the narrator has become inured to it—but also beautiful, immersive and illuminating. **Buy Now:** _Who They Was_on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781635577662) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/30RULLO) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120663/who-they-was/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120663/who-they-was/"},"headline":"Who They Was","datePublished":"2021-11-29T13:15:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:58:20.291Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120663/who-they-was/","keywords":["Books","list","best books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120663/who-they-was/","name":"Who They Was"}}]}] ```