Vinson Cunningham’s debut, Great Expectations, follows a young man as he becomes a part of the campaign which results in the election of the country’s first Black president. What he experiences during the eighteen months that take the candidate from the Senate to the White House leads him to reassess his own life and identity as a Black man in America. ‘Meditating on politics and politicians, religion and preachers, fathers and family, Great Expectations is both an emotionally resonant coming-of-age story and a rich novel of ideas, marking the arrival of a major new writer’ which sounds like catnip for me.
Varaidzo’s Manny and the Baby is partly set in my home town on the eve of the Olympics in 2012, and partly in London in 1936 where two sisters are determined to make a splash, one as a writer, the other as a dancer who finds herself attracted to a Jamaican trumpeter. Many years later, Itai has holed up in his late father’s Bath flat realising how little he knows about him while pondering his new friendship with Josh, an athlete feeling the pressure of the Olympics. ‘Manny and the Baby is a character-driven debut novel, full of heart, about what it means to be Black and British, now and in the past’ says the blurb promisingly.
Michael Donkor’s Grow Where They Fall begins when Kwame is ten, always the good boy until his cousin turns up from Ghana. Twenty years later, he’s a popular secondary school teacher, apparently happy and confident but still living a cautious life until the arrival of a new headteacher forces him to face events from his childhood. ‘Grow Where They Fall is a beautifully written, spirited and deeply moving novel about a young man finding the courage to expand the limits of who he might become’ says the blurb.
That’s it for March. A click on a title will take you either to my review or to a more detailed synopsis should you want to know more, and if you’d like to catch up with part one it’s here. New fiction is here and here.
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Just off for my weekly session volunteering at the library, so I’ve only had time to skim-read your reviews so far. But I’ve made time to request the Cunningham and the Donkor.
Delighted to hear that. Enjoy your day!
I was sent a copy of Manny & the Baby last yr – must try to dig it out.
I’ll be interested to see how Bath’s portrayed.
I struggled very badly with Michael Donkor’s Hold so I doubt I’ll be picking up his latest.
Duly noted! This would be my first if I get to it.
Ooh I’ve gone back and forth over the Lisa Ko. It was on my wish list and I nearly got it and then backed off. Your review sounds to me like you had mixed feelings ultimately?
I did, although weighed towards the positive. It gave me much to think about but, in retrospect, I don’t think I’d rush to read another by her.
Manny and the Baby sounds appealing. I hadn’t heard of it at all but I’ll look out for it.
Hopes are high for that one!
Most of these sound great. Great Expectations, Manny and Baby and Grow Where They FAll all seriously appeal to me.
Excellent! Job done
I like the sound of the Patagonia book.
Me, too. I like a good road novel.
My husband and I both absolutely loved Memory Piece. I thought it was diverging too much, too, then found it all very satisfying – even though it went into the future, which I don’t normally like!
Me, neither, but we’d spent so much time with the three women it seemed natural to follow them into the future. Glad you both enjoyed it so much!
I’m very intrigued by Great Expectations!
Me, too, although I’m not sure how I’ll feel reading it in the current chaos.
Manny and the Baby has such a fun cover! (And it reminds me of Jackie Kay’s Trumpet. Did you ever read that one? Beautiful.)
I haven’t but, having looked up its cover, I can see why you’d think of it.