That Reminds Me

Winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize 2020

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That Reminds Me

By: Derek Owusu

Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2020
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'A dreamy, impressionistic offering of reassembled fragments of memories emerging through the misty beauty of a deliciously individualistic poetic sensibility . . . remind[s] us of what has been missing from British poetry. I can't tell you how impressed I was and how much I enjoyed reading this stunning book.'
Bernadine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other

'Heartbreaking, important and original.'
Christie Watson, author of THE LANGUAGE OF KINDNESS

'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

'When writing is this honest, it soars. What an incredible use of language and truth.'
Yrsa Daley-Ward
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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.
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'A singular achievement.'
Michael Donkor, Guardian

'This story is brave and moving.'
Kate Kellaway, Observer

'Honest and beautiful.'
Guy Gunaratne, author of IN OUR MAD AND FURIOUS CITY

Coming of Age

Family Life

Fiction

Genre Fiction

Literary Fiction

Poetry

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Critic reviews

A dreamy, impressionistic offeringof reassembled fragments of memories emerging through the misty beauty of a deliciously individualistic poetic sensibility with flashes of Twi and UK London ebonics to further remind us of what has been missing from British poetry... I can't tell you how impressed I was and how much I enjoyed reading this stunning book. (Bernadine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other)

When writing is this honest, it soars. I think that this is why the words in this collection fly around you and settle, as they have. What an incredible use of language and truth. Hope this reaches all the mandem. We need more.

These are words that come from the heart, the lived life and owned observations. Powerful and moving. Social realism at its best.

I hate Derek Owusu for the same reasons I love him: he is the sort of writer who makes me and other writers have doubts about whether we belong in this art. He is one of a kind. Truly a precious stone of a poet. His words evoke flawless empathy and leave me with either a strained face from smiling or a wet page from crying. I consider myself enlightened, lucky, intimidated and gripped when I read his words.

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.

That Reminds Me by Derek Owusu reads like an open wound. The prose runs like a pulse, builds like the beat of some lowercase drum. Honest and beautiful.

That Reminds Me is heartbreaking, important and original. Derek Owusu's words are precious scars.

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.

Honest, insightful, and woven together in a narrative that will undoubtedly change lives.

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.

Most relevant

Derek Owusu is on the Granta list of young British authors for 2023 which is why I downloaded this book

The title of That Reminds Me suggests those ideas and memories which emerge randomly and jostle in your head. It’s a fitting title for this highly idiosyncratic and fragmentary novel about K (born like Derek himself of Ghanaian parents) from childhood to deeply troubled young man.

Owusu’s novel (which is more of a memoir) is extremely succinct (160 minutes listening only), and its fragmentary quality in its numbered and extremely fleeting paragraphs, each one dealing with one intensely vivid episode. His language is adventurous and striking with some powerful sections and some having the rhythms of poetry. There are times however when meaning is strangled.
The experiences which Owusu recreates are intensely visceral and graphic , such as his years in a foster home, his mother’s illness and his family’s tough life in 1990s Tottenham, his love for his baby brother, his feelings of alienation and self-loathing, his early sexual experiences, and his social and cultural struggles growing up.
Then there are the horrors of his mental deterioration and the periods of self-harming which are described in unflinching detail. At the end of the Audible recording there is a long list of contacts for help for listeners affected by this section. I don’t know whether this is in the book or just on audio, but I found that it detracted from the book, upsetting the balance of what is a child-man story, not one focussing exclusively on self-harm.
The narration by the Ghanaian actor Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is first class, totally in tune with the text, culture and voices.