Grow Where They Fall

'Michael Donkor is a real talent' SARAH WINMAN, author of Still Life

'Hugely enjoyable and very moving, Donkor's frank, clear-eyed and funny prose is so refreshing - an important voice in contemporary British fiction' DIANA EVANS, author of Ordinary People

Bright and precocious ten-year-old Kwame Akromah knows how to behave. He knows the importance of good manners, how to stay at the top of the class and out of the way when his mother and father are angry with each other. But when his charismatic cousin Yaw arrives from Ghana to live with the family while he looks for work, the rules Kwame has learned about the world can no longer guide him.

Twenty years later, Kwame is a secondary-school teacher, popular with his students and depended on by his friends. His is a life spent elegantly weaving between the classroom, the labyrinth of Grindr politics and increasingly intermittent visits to his parents’ home. Behind the confident façade, however, he is as driven by caution as he was as a boy.

But when electrifying changemaker Marcus Felix is appointed as headteacher, Kwame must reckon with himself as he never has before. Can he face the ghosts of his childhood? How will he learn to move through the world without losing who he is? And where does existing stop and living begin?

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, from the acclaimed author of Hold.

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'Brilliant ... Donkor shapes lives that are so rich in texture that you genuinely care about who they are and what they’re going through' JEFFREY BOAKYE

'Radiant, deeply felt ... I loved every shining moment' GUY GUNARATNE

'A masterclass in immersive storytelling ... Donkor's words make me proud to be a Black British man' ASHLEY HICKSON-LOVENCE

About the Author