Ironopolis by Glen James Brown
I loved this novel set on Teesside and I wish I hadn't tried to read it when I'm struggling to read fiction. It took me two months to get through and by the time I was near the end I couldn't quite remember details from the start. However, I do know I was hooked by the second page and I recommend it without hesitation. There's a housing estate being gradually knocked down and replaced, in or near Middlesbrough. We learn of the interconnected stories of a handful of its inhabitants from a variety of viewpoints, and through it all is woven the local legend of Peg Powler.
It's not as simple as a novel written as a continuous narrative, but neither is it a collection of stories. It begins with a series of letters from the 1990s, but includes journal entries from the 1980s, transcripts of interviews in 2015 and 2016, as well as what you might call straightforward narrative. Through the different points of view and their memories and flashbacks the interlocking stories of the main characters build up in layers, from the 1950s to 2016. It has some pretty dark threads but also humour, love, belonging. It is excellent on the complicated nature of family relationships and the feelings people have for the place they grew up. It is full of the ordinariness of everyday life, wrapped up with some fairly extraordinary goings-on.
Overall it is a pretty bleak tale I guess, but maybe that made the moments of beauty or hope all the more precious. I thought it was brilliantly constructed, though Peg (or her story) didn't appear as much as I'd expected. Imagine if one of the Angry Young Men of the 1960s had written a novel after getting really into dark folktales - now if that sounds appealing, go read Ironopolis. And if you're not sure, read it anyway.