An Olive Grove in Ends: The dazzling debut novel about love, faith and community, by an electrifying new voice

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And I would not be surprised to see it appear on literary prize lists over the next 12 months or so – as it clearly introduces a fresh and distinctive new voice to the UK literary scene from a very young author (the auction for this book – and a follow up around the St Paul riots – took place in 2020 when the author was a 22 year old recent English graduate). To everything there may have been a season, but some things remained unchanged and I wouldn’t rest until I owned that house-atop-the-hill. Sayon wrestles with his feelings for his girlfriend Shona, with her preacher father and his insistence on the Christian god, his cousin’s insistence on Allah, and with his best friend and cousin Cuba who he cannot imagine abandoning. In Chapter 2, Sayon says "my mortality was as real to me as the soil I shovelled on to the aunts, uncles and cousins we buried…the funerals outnumbered even the weddings." How does his family history and their reputation in Ends impact his life as he comes of age? You know deh’s horses in the woods, init?’ I said, repeating what my mama had told me all those years ago.

An Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie | Goodreads An Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie | Goodreads

WINNER: HAWTHORNDEN PRIZE 2023; SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD 2023;SOHO HOUSE BREAKTHROUGH WRITER AWARD 2022 What I love about this is that the violence that is such a big part of his world often dominates similar books, but in this novel it doesn't, the treat of violence is there and there's some very violent scenes, but the focus of the novel is on the society pressures, the relationships and the role of religion and that allows this man to fall in love with a woman, make friends and contrast what they're saying with his family and show how that makes him feel trapped.As with “Who They Was” or “Mad and Furious City” (and the book will draw comparisons to both and sits somewhere in the middle of them) one’s ability to appreciate the book will partly correlate with one’s ability to follow the language (which for me was not an issue but I think may well be for others).

An Olive Grove in Ends: The dazzling debut novel about love An Olive Grove in Ends: The dazzling debut novel about love

And the book will for many readers be most distinguished by the speech of the various characters – typically Jamaican patois of various vintages – including sprinklings of Somali, for example (Sayon’s mother and a younger Cuba respectively) We spent the entire afternoon chasing the shadows of those white horses, but we didn’t catch the swish of a tail, nor the print of a hoof. We returned to the house-atop-the-hill downcast and defeated. I found my place in the tree again, and Cuba took up the twigs. For Sayon life is about making enough money to buy that house on the hill, one he saw as a child, and he has never let go of that dream. Life is also about family for Sayon, as the reader instantly surmises when viewing the family tree at the beginning of the novel. With so many uncles and cousins involved in the drug trade it’s hard for him to imagine another life but if he wants a life with Shona he will ultimately have to find a way out. There are roads in neighbourhoods like mine all across the country. Broad roads. Without mansions. In England they have names like City Road or High Street, except this road was called Stapleton, and those familiar with her charm might call her Stapes. Two officers stood beside the tape ready to hurry any gawkers along, but since this wasn’t Clifton, the scene was hardly worth much more than a passing glance.

BookBrowse Review

I was so intrigued by its Cover and I had to read it. It was a Wonderful choice and has become another on my Favorite list. Conversations take place in British and Islam flavored Jamaican Patois that readers of Marlon James will be somewhat familiar with but will possibly have to look up a few new words. I never found it in any way a hinderance to the flow of the novel. Scott Shane's outstanding work Flee North tells the little-known tale of an unlikely partnership ...

An Olive Grove in Ends | Moses McKenzie | Granta An Olive Grove in Ends | Moses McKenzie | Granta

I think if you come from asmall town, you need to be quite scrappy,” says Marli Siu, who used to get a14-hour Megabus from Aberdeen to London for auditions. Now based in the capital, Siu lived in Hong Kong until she was four before moving to Forres in northeast Scotland. After getting her degree in English and Drama at Edinburgh University, Siu’s first job at alocal theatre led her to breakthrough both on screen and stage – last November, she won Best Actress from Bafta Scotland for her role in indie drama Run. I set the novel in the area I was raised in. So the inspiration is just the area itself, you know, my home is the inspiration. I don’t mean my home as in my literal house. My home, as in my area and then the neighbouring area. I didn’t have to sit down and think about setting and place because that was what I lived. And then I wrote it for my little cousin. A remarkable debut, bristling with sharp prose and daring originality' Nathan Harris, author of THE SWEETNESS OF WATER If I was only rating the writing and not the plot or the characters I would have given this five stars. I think this author is definitely going places and I can see why this book has been nominated for awards, I just didn't personally 'get on' with it.

This is a story, much like any other, of ends and beginnings. Like any story, it is hard to know where to begin. But I think it makes sense to start at home, or a home. Actually, it might be more accurate to call it a house; one that stood alone atop Mount Zion, overlooking Leigh Woods, the Avon Valley and the muddy river that wound beneath. The most exciting U.K. debut in years…Drug violence, religious strife, and a star-crossed romance play out in this Shakespearean tale set in a Bristol neighborhood of Caribbean and Somali immigrants called Ends…A gritty coming-of-age tale for the ages. The first party narrator is Sayon – part of the notorious Hughes family “known to police and hospital staff across the city.” whose various branches (shown as a – Olive – family tree before the text start) all under the matriarchal overview of his grandmother Nanny, dominate his life the book.

An Olive Grove in Ends (Audio Download): Moses McKenzie

I assumed the old man was with the greenery and that he wouldn’t be long, so I tended the shop to pass the time. It would do well to take my mind from things. From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada: Each chapter begins with an epigraph that is a verse from the Bible or the Quran, or a Jamaican proverb. Why do you think the author decided to do this, and how does it affect the reading experience for you?The book’s skilful, knife-edge climax has a cinematic tension, fuelled by the sad inevitability of a life lived on the streets. As Sayon’s trouble-making cousin Cuba says: “Once you’re fully in dis world only a few can leave fam.” Brutal in places but always beautiful, An Olive Grove in Ends is a bullishly brilliant debut by a young author with a very bright future. And among a tale of a 11-year-old (going on about 21 at least compared to my schooldays) gangster in the making (while also intelligent) Sayon recounting tales of his various schemes and fights what are we to make of the insertion of this sudden passage of exposition The community and location takes on a life of its own (just as Manderley in Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier does) from the descriptions of the smells, to the people who walk the streets and the slow colonisation of the gentrified neighbourhood by new white business owners. We see Sayon strong feelings about his community and family and how that impacts his decisions and relationships.