Losing the Plot

by Derek Owusu

Overview

DEREK OWUSU NAMED GRANTA'S BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELISTS 2023

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

ISBN-13:	9781838855628
Publisher:	Canongate Books
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.03(h) x 0.79(d)

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. 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. In 2019 Derek collated, edited and contributed to Safe: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space. His debut novel, That Reminds Me, won the Desmond Elliott Prize.

@DerekVsOwusu

Editorial Reviews

"[Losing the Plot has] category-confounding form . . . vulnerability and tough beauty"

Observer - HEPHZIBAH ANDERSON

"A love letter - sometimes dense, often moving - written by a son to his mother"

Guardian

"Owusu's prose is fragmentary and lucid . . . Losing the Plot is a masterclass in distilled writing and a stirring ode to motherhood"

Irish Times

"A highly enigmatic, affectionate and robustly written portrayal of a mother-son relationship . . . very relatable"

DIANA EVANS

"A densely poetic act of resistance"

Times Literary Supplement

"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 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

"A biting glimpse of the immigrant experience relayed in a distinctive Ghanaian-British voice"

Financial Times

"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"

i - MICHAEL DONKOR

"Owusu is one of the most original writers today"

STEFAN TOBLER

"Losing the Plot is a timeless piece, crafted and written with immense emotion and exquisite detail. If you want to enter the lived experiences of our seniors, journey through their joys and pains, then this is the book for you"

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