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Ground
It all starts with a fire. Seven children, asleep in a big house in the Italian countryside. A forgotten candle. Their parents are not there. They are in a different country, a different continent, Africa, where other siblings are growing as part of the same family but in an entirely different life. Without their parents, the children feel dispersed, trying to keep hold of each other.
Now in his forties, Redesof works as an acupuncturist in post-Brexit London. From his balcony in Hackney he talks to his beautiful neighbour Telma telling her his story; of his childhood of migration from Congo to Italy to Britain, hoping to come to some sort of resolution with his past.
A heartfelt tale of displacement, family, and home, Ground delivers a story with international scope that is vital in today's world.
Now in his forties, Redesof works as an acupuncturist in post-Brexit London. From his balcony in Hackney he talks to his beautiful neighbour Telma telling her his story; of his childhood of migration from Congo to Italy to Britain, hoping to come to some sort of resolution with his past.
A heartfelt tale of displacement, family, and home, Ground delivers a story with international scope that is vital in today's world.
576 pages, Paperback
Published November 14, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 19, 2026
We flllow Redesof, a man living in London who reflects on a childhood shaped by migration and abandonment. After a house fire in rural Italy, he and his siblings are separated and placed into state care. The novel moves between these early experiences and his adult life, where he recounts his story to a neighbour, piecing together memories of dislocation, fractured family ties, and the search for belonging across multiple countries and identities.
At a deeper level, the novel explores the emotional consequences of growing up between cultures, showing how migration can both create opportunity and inflict lasting psychological strain. Redesof’s fragmented sense of self reflects broader themes of identity, race, and exclusion, particularly in Europe. Yet the narrative is not purely tragic: through storytelling, relationships, and his work as a healer, he gradually works toward reconciliation with his past. Gangbo ultimately presents healing as an ongoing process, suggesting that while displacement leaves scars, connection and self-understanding can offer a form of grounding.
This was very readable and I sped through it. I liked how the writing felt like a victorian novel with the lives of the characters at its heart, but with aside passages about different topics.
At the end if the novel, I was sad to let go of the time spent with Redesof and would have liked a little more insights into the present.
Quotes:
“Then the gentrification kicked in. With the new upper-class demographic moving in, that sense of cohesion that characterized Hackney died off, simply because the rich have nothing to say to the poor, they have not shared cultural references, they entertain themselves in separate circuits, feed and buy in separate shops, have a separate existence, a deep social economical divide between the old Hackney and the new Hackney have ensued and is growing by the day. Hackney's renovation meant for me that I turned out not to be that anonymous anymore.”
“Besides, the truth here, at the end of the day, was that we didn't want to spoil that precious picture of an African family unity that Dad's house planning implied by spitting out a load of bitter and boring, unnecessary complaints. In fact, we all wanted to go back to Italy with a good memory of that summet over anything else.
So, afer the meeting was over, we didhit bother to comment about it, we just went back to our own businesses.”
“The perception of suffering was a relative concept that changed from culture to culture.
Other peoples' worst lives should not be a good reason for us to keep quiet and accept terms that were harming us. We simply could not let other peoples' suffering overshadow our anger, more privileged or not, holding on to promises of change and solutions that were never deliv-ered, waiting for nothing, for the sake of being disappointed time and time again, with no explanation given.”
At a deeper level, the novel explores the emotional consequences of growing up between cultures, showing how migration can both create opportunity and inflict lasting psychological strain. Redesof’s fragmented sense of self reflects broader themes of identity, race, and exclusion, particularly in Europe. Yet the narrative is not purely tragic: through storytelling, relationships, and his work as a healer, he gradually works toward reconciliation with his past. Gangbo ultimately presents healing as an ongoing process, suggesting that while displacement leaves scars, connection and self-understanding can offer a form of grounding.
This was very readable and I sped through it. I liked how the writing felt like a victorian novel with the lives of the characters at its heart, but with aside passages about different topics.
At the end if the novel, I was sad to let go of the time spent with Redesof and would have liked a little more insights into the present.
Quotes:
“Then the gentrification kicked in. With the new upper-class demographic moving in, that sense of cohesion that characterized Hackney died off, simply because the rich have nothing to say to the poor, they have not shared cultural references, they entertain themselves in separate circuits, feed and buy in separate shops, have a separate existence, a deep social economical divide between the old Hackney and the new Hackney have ensued and is growing by the day. Hackney's renovation meant for me that I turned out not to be that anonymous anymore.”
“Besides, the truth here, at the end of the day, was that we didn't want to spoil that precious picture of an African family unity that Dad's house planning implied by spitting out a load of bitter and boring, unnecessary complaints. In fact, we all wanted to go back to Italy with a good memory of that summet over anything else.
So, afer the meeting was over, we didhit bother to comment about it, we just went back to our own businesses.”
“The perception of suffering was a relative concept that changed from culture to culture.
Other peoples' worst lives should not be a good reason for us to keep quiet and accept terms that were harming us. We simply could not let other peoples' suffering overshadow our anger, more privileged or not, holding on to promises of change and solutions that were never deliv-ered, waiting for nothing, for the sake of being disappointed time and time again, with no explanation given.”
December 12, 2024
An enjoyable novel that inevitably recalls Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in its descriptions of life in Africa and Europe but which is impressive given English is a language the author learned only as he approached middle age. It’s long – apparently, it took many years to write and perhaps could do with an edit - but high points include the book’s narrative interweaving with politics since the 1980s, powerful sections on the refugee and immigrant experience and fascinating depictions of the Republic of Congo, generally less well-known globally than its neighbour, the Democratic Republic. A lot of the action takes place in Italy with Forza Italia and The Lega not, as you would expect, sympathetic to outsiders and the tale of an extended family who meet varying fates is well told.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews