Grow Where They Fall

Reviews

A perfect book to read in Pride month ... This book will strike a chord with everyone who reads it Funny, fierce and full of throwbacks ... Characters are crafted with such depth and heart that readers will pine for them long after the final page. A masterclass in immersive storytelling, Donkor’s words make me proud to be a Black British man ‘Donkor writes with a twinkle in his eye. Funny and infinitely relatable, Grow Where They Fall invites us to really think and is a reminder of how the years don't give us a reason to forget where we came from. I wanted to meet Kwame and say thank goodness that you exist in a world like this’ Brilliant storytelling. A masterclass in character. Michael shapes lives that are so rich in texture that you genuinely care about who they are and what they’re going through. It was a genuine delight to see relatable lived experiences too, from the perspective of the Ghanaian diaspora. Written with wit, depth and warmth, this is a book with characters who will stay with you. In Kwame, I feel like I’ve made a new friend. A novel of great heart, wit, sensitivity and power. Donkor’s shining characters and engaging prose linger long in the memory Hugely enjoyable and very moving, Donkor's frank, clear-eyed and funny prose is so refreshing - an important voice in contemporary British fiction I loved every shining moment. In this radiant, deeply felt novel, Michael Donkor offers us the complexities of modern life - messy love, aching loss, our capacity for forgiveness, dignity and self-acceptance - with all the grace and fluent clarity of a singular, open-hearted storyteller A refreshing and beautifully observed queer narrative that centres someone who is, like many of us, simply seeking joy in a world we are not responsible for Donkor is a real talent His work has an immediacy and a warmth to it and his is a world you want to enter An elegant coming-of-age tale about confronting the ghosts of our childhood, queer love and finding the courage to live a bigger and better life for ourselves Donkor is a master-weaver, threading together a story rich in layers and nuance. The characters are bursting out of their restraints to find what truly suits them. Beautiful, generous story-telling, compelling characters and so much delicious depth Elegant ... An author confident of his storytelling skills, and rightly so Donkor revels in the detail of everyday life in this languorous coming-of-age novel ... Donkor both rejects many of the knee-jerk pieties about race while lending his story an easy, conversational intimacy. A novel that glows with the ache of being alive Meticulously observed ... There’s no shortage of humanity, humour and depth A clever braid of two periods in the life of Kwame Akromah ... Insightful ... Detailed with convincing and often devastating precision ... Although Grow Where They Fall is concerned with revealing how adult anxieties are formed in childhood, Donkor avoids the trap of casting thirty-year old Kwame as a passive victim ... There's an element of breakthrough, a hint of A Room of One's Own at the novel's end Subtle and illuminating Expand reviews