Book Description

'A fast-paced, dense, poetic, original, and bewitching story by an important new writer! That Reminds Me will long be remembered by readers.'ALAIN MABANCKOU'Powerful...written with candour and verve, and full of moments of heart-stopping anguish and beauty.' STEPHEN KELMAN, author of PIGEON ENGLISH‘Derek Owusu’s writing is honest, moving, delicate, but tough. Once you lock on to his words, it is hard to break eye contact. A beautiful meditation on childhood, coming of age, the now, and the media. This work is heartfelt.’ BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH‘Heartbreaking, important and original.’ CHRISTIE WATSON, author of THE LANGUAGE OF KINDNESS 'Derek Owusu writes about life's horrors and wonders with unwavering intelligence, as well as breathtaking technical skill.' LAURENCE SCOTT, author of The Four-Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World 'That Reminds Me is extraordinary. It’s a complex, emotional story – intimately told. Every word is used to great effect, and the images Derek evokes are simply stunning. It is unique, original and so very beautiful. I enjoyed this book very much.’DOROTHY KOOMSON‘This book was gripping and an emotional rollercoaster. One that we could not put down.’ SUNNY AND SHAY, BBC Radio London"Honest, insightful, and woven together in a narrative that will undoubtedly change lives.'DERAY MCKESSON'Derek Owusu's voice is originally poetical and profoundly authentic. That Reminds Me is an addictive and painful delight.'KOBNA HOLDBROOK-SMITH‘Honest and beautiful.’ GUY GUNARATNE, author of IN OUR MAD AND FURIOUS CITY‘When writing is this honest, it soars. What an incredible use of language and truth.’ YRSA DALEY-WARD'Powerful and moving. Social realism at its best.' ALEX WHEATLE MBE'Derek Owusu is one of a kind. Truly a precious stone of a poet.' NELS ABBEY, author of THINK LIKE A WHITE MAN'Owusu’s work is a much-needed contribution to literature. His work is profoundly tender, often wry and always sharply observed. He grants us a rare, nuanced glimpse into the world of a vulnerable young black man, negotiating his identity in a complex and difficult world.'OKECHUKWU NZELU, author of THE PRIVATE JOYS OF NNENNA MALONEY'Derek Owusu crafts a seminal account of how we may sometimes plunge to the depths, but can always rise. In weaving emotion into literary gold, truth had never been this painfully told, or this beautiful.’COURTTIA NEWLAND'The best poetry out since Warsan Shire'SYMEON BROWN, CHANNEL 4 NEWS“If you want to see what the policies from Whitehall that keep the working classes struggling look like in human guise, when placed in an environment where their identities have to be negotiated daily, That Reminds Me is the viewfinder you need. It’s post-Thatcher reality in the inner city, clouded over by racism, infused with West African stoicism, narrated by a voice that has known something different. It’s life as a growing boy experiences it, with a powerless wonder; it’s messy and beautiful, fractured but eloquent. K’s story reminds us that our scars should not strip us of our dignity.”NII AYIKWEI PARKES___________________________________MEMORIES MAKE YOU, RECOLLECTIONS BREAK YOU'Anansi, your four gifts raised to Nyame granted you no power over the stories I tell...'This is the story of K.K is sent into care before a year marks his birth. He grows up in fields and woods, and he is happy, he thinks. When K is eleven, the city reclaims him. He returns to an unknown mother and a part-time father, trading the fields for flats and a community that is alien to him. Slowly, he finds friends. Eventually, he finds love. He learns how to navigate the city. But as he grows, he begins to realise that he needs more than the city can provide. He is a man made of pieces. Pieces that are slowly breaking apart.That Reminds Me is the story of one young man, from birth to adulthood, told in fragments of memory. It explores questions of identity, belonging, addiction, sexuality, violence, family and religion. It is a deeply moving and completely original work of literature from one of the brightest British writers of today.