
Losing the Plot
Derek Owusu
(Author)Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR PEOPLE'S BOOK PRIZE - FICTION 2023
'A highly enigmatic, affectionate and robustly written
portrayal of a mother-son relationship . . . very relatable' Diana Evans
Driven by a deep-seated desire to understand his mother's
life before he was born, Derek Owusu offers a powerful imagining of her
journey. As she moves from Ghana to the UK and navigates parenthood in a
strange and often lonely environment, the effects of displacement are felt
across generations. Told through the eyes of both mother and son, Losing the
Plot is at once emotionally raw and playful as Owusu experiments with form to
piece together the immigrant experience and explore how the stories we share and
tell ourselves are just as vital as the ones we don't.
Product Details
Publisher | Canongate Books |
Publish Date | February 13, 2024 |
Pages | 160 |
Language | English |
Type | |
EAN/UPC | 9781838855628 |
Dimensions | 7.9 X 5.1 X 0.8 inches | 0.5 pounds |
About the Author
Derek Owusu is a writer, poet and podcaster from North London. In 2016, he joined the multi-award winning literature podcast Mostly Lit. He also produced the well-received This Is Spoke podcast for Penguin Random House and Freemantle Media. He has written for the Big Issue, i and more. His essay on Black men and insecurities was the second-most read article on Media Diversified in 2018, and his essay on language was picked up by BBC Newsnight to be turned into a short documentary. He contributed to What Is Race by Nikesh Shukla and Claire Heuchan and has had poems published by the Good Journal. Derek also collated, edited and contributed to Safe: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space. He is the author of That Reminds Me, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize.
@DerekVsOwusu
Reviews
"[Losing the Plot has] category-confounding form . . . vulnerability and tough beauty"--HEPHZIBAH ANDERSON "Observer"
"A biting glimpse of the immigrant experience relayed in a distinctive Ghanaian-British voice"-- "Financial Times"
"A densely poetic act of resistance"-- "Times Literary Supplement"
"A love letter - sometimes dense, often moving - written by a son to his mother"-- "Guardian"
"Masterful . . . This novel is a reflection of a son attempting to embrace the entirety of his mother - all her vulnerability, spikiness and unknowability. And Owusu does so with extraordinary compassion"--MICHAEL DONKOR "i"
"Owusu is one of the most original writers today"--STEFAN TOBLER
"Owusu reimagines his mother's journey to the UK in order to process generational trauma and find peace in empathy. Owusu's writing is bold, wise, and generous; he amplifies and validates the complexities of inter-generational love"-- "British Blacklist"
"Owusu's intricate layering of form and language (in all its meanings), and the blur of the author and his mother's life with that of their fictional counterparts, reflects the complexity of identity and memory in the most unique of ways . . . Losing the Plot will forever linger in your mind"-- "Arts Desk"
"Owusu's prose is fragmentary and lucid . . . Losing the Plot is a masterclass in distilled writing and a stirring ode to motherhood"-- "Irish Times"
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