Forest Gate

by Peter Akinti

Akinti's raw and riveting debut novel begins with Ashvin, an angry teenage Somali refugee, and his best friend, James, on opposite rooftops in the slums of East London preparing to hang themselves in a suicide pact. Ashvin leaps, unable to bear the reality of his own life—his activist parents murdered in Somalia; his brutal rape at the hands of Ethiopian soldiers; the constant harassment by London police and his schoolmates; the endless battles he will face as a black man in England. He leaves behind Meina, the beloved older sister he had always tried to protect. James, a lonely, studious teen, the baby of the drug-dealing Morrison clan, whose brothers are dehumanized, violent criminals, desperately wants to escape the family business, but he can't imagine a way out. When James jumps, but survives, Meina seeks James out, and they try to find shelter in one another. Akinti, himself a product of London's council estates (public housing), captures in gracious and resonant prose the fear, anger, and sadness of life in the violent and poverty-stricken slums of London's East End.

Genres: Fiction, Africa, British Literature, London, Cultural, Contemporary

210 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Peter Akinti was a seventies child, born of Nigerian ancestry, in London. He read Law at a London University. He has written for the Guardian, and worked for four years at HM Treasury Chambers before founding and editing Untold Magazine for five years. Untold was the first independent British magazine for black men and had a wealth of gifted contributors from all over the diaspora. Peter spent eighteen months in Nigeria, running a restaurant, beer parlour and cinema in Ondo Town, Southwest Nigeria. He currently lives in Brooklyn. Forest Gate is his first novel.

Reviews

[Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forest Gate is a painful, poignant, and brilliant novel. It comes as close to perfect as any novel I've ever read. Akinti pulls no punches in a visceral and vivid display of life in both London's Forest Gate community and a war-torn Somalia. Centering around representatives from those two walks of life, James Morrison and Armenia, and their budding relationship in the face of the tragic suicide attempt by James and Armenia's brother, Ashvin, which Ashvin does not survive. The book is an extremely difficult read, not because of any confounding prose, but simply because the depictions of violence and tragedy are vivid and heartbreaking. However there's not an ounce of sensationalism here, every depiction of violence is essential to the narrative's impact. Akinti offers commentary on issues of race and class struggle from a contemporary perspective that is fresh and relevant to modern society not just in the Western world but throughout the world. Forest Gate is an extremely fulfilling read and a beautifully crafted work of literature.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

One morning during her early morning class, young Meina is unexpectedly removed and brought to speak with two policemen who inform her that her brother Ashvin is dead. Ashvin and his best friend James had recently put a suicide pact into motion, both boys hanging themselves from two opposite tower roofs. It is only Ashvin who succeeds in ending his life, leaving James behind full of feelings of guilt and irreparable despair. When Meina discovers that the two boys acted in conjunction, she seeks James out to discover Ashvin's motives. The two soon find themselves in a tentative relationship, their sadness giving way to love. But James and Meina have outside conflicts that threaten their new peace. James is the youngest brother of five, and all of his siblings are drug-runners and arms dealers and his mother is addicted to crack. Meina has escaped the war in Somalia after the brutal murder of her parents and is now at the mercy of a benefactor whose motives may not be pure. As Meina and James struggle to cope with the violence and casual cruelties of their London tenement existence, they begin to discover that life's unexpected reversals have led to more than their new relationship and they must find a way to leave their oppressive and stale environment behind to move on to a more fruitful future. In this raw and haunting debut, author Peter Akinti spins a tale of two lives caught in the midst of a terrible violence and the shattered dreams it inflicts upon its innocent bystanders.

It is rare for me to come across a book like this. This story is very gritty and filled with the frustration and sadness of people inhabiting a dim and violence-charged world. Akinti doesn't flinch at all in his tale and the anger and frustration burst off the page and burn into the reader's psyche like fire. There are no missteps in this tale, no fumbling in emotion or intention, and often when I was reading, I was caught up in extreme feelings of anger. The disillusionment of the characters was palpable and it seemed that no matter what they did or said, they were destined to be misunderstood and marginalized. It was an extremely powerful book and one that made me reach into the deep recesses if my mind to formulate questions that I had previously given little to no thought to.

The book begin with the death and attempted suicide of the two boys, and from there, the action focuses on the dual and shifting narrative of James and Meina. Both the main characters have reasons to be broken and despondent; both are filled with indignation at their circumstances. But there is not only the anger of their shared suffering on the page, there is also a sense of their fleeting dreams and unrealized potential and the desperate wrestling of their hope for the future. As the narrative winds on, I came to realize that these two would have to go to extraordinary lengths to find even a modicum of happiness for themselves. To pull out of this desperate tailspin, they would have to be given the chance to start anew when everything and everyone was holding them back. Their situation was indeed grim, and the answers to their problems involved their traveling down paths filled with pain and recrimination. There were no easy answers for these two and it was a long uphill struggle for both of them.

The book was filled with a scathing sense of social commentary. Questions about identity, self worth and the age old repercussions of violence were deftly intertwined into the narrative, with both Meina and James acting as mouthpieces to these shared conflicts. James speaks elegantly and at length about the stereotyping of black males and the ways that people try to defy these stereotypes in themselves and their community, only to find that they are beginning to embody everything that they are fighting against. Meina speaks about the extreme liberties that have been taken of her body and mind, the confusion of war and the loss of self-respect and self-value. Together they have a lot to say, and it is within these messages that the book seeks to be the fulcrum of change. These messages are often biting and brutal, the lessons they impart hard-won. I thought that there was a strange beauty in these messages. The dark meanderings of Akinti's soul took on a life and force that resonated in me profoundly and struck me deeply. The fear that was etched into these characters was palpable and their expression of it not only sincere but frightening.

Another thing I liked about this book was the earnestness of the dialogue. Though most of it was caustic, it had a unique ability to also be reflective and to feel humble. There were small snippets of dialogue that startled with their implications and penetration, and I felt that Akinti definitely succeeded in making his characters' voices believable and authentic in a way that not many books of this caliber do. The questions that the characters asked of each other and themselves were not only searching of themselves but of the wider community surrounding them.

At the end of the book Akinti also provides an essay reflecting his early years in London. This essay reveals that his life was plagued by many of the questions that his characters faced, and I saw a startling similarity between Akinti and his character James. I thought that the essay was a brilliant companion to the story, as it really struck the roots of the societal damage that is inflicted on living breathing human beings.

Though this book was very dark, it excelled in getting its messages across and driving home the realities of violence, subjugation and racism. It was one hell of a powerhouse in terms of plot, character and in the driving home of its messages, and I highly recommend it as a read that crosses genres. It is certainly a book that will make you think, and though the majority of the plot is mired in sadness, there does come a point where things begin to move towards the realm of hope and possibility. Akiniti is a brilliant author, and I hope to read more of his work when it becomes available to me. Don't pass this book up. Though it is far from gentle, it has the ability to change you in some very powerful ways.

[Stephanie Griffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads like a first novel. Trigger warning for violence and rape.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure of how or why I came upon this book, I think it was a grab-in-passing from the public library's browse shelf. I'm glad that this book crossed my path, it is brutal and beautiful and engaging.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

one of my book culbs are reading this book this kind of book is new to me so to me it was a lil slow i almost stop reading it im happy i read it because it was a good book hrad to read at time with the rape and things like that over all a good book

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

This debut novel by the East End-raised son of Nigerian immigrants to England has a pretty clear point of view. And that view is that racism permeates British culture, fashionable multiculturalism is an illusion, and pretty much all black men are locked in a lifelong struggle to break free of the negative expectations they see in the mirror. Personally, I found the expression of these themes a bit on the strident side and sometimes rather clumsily articulated, but then again, as a comfortably middle-class white guy, it could be reasonably argued that I posses none of the experience required to truly engage with the material. Nonetheless, I found the book worth reading in several respects, especially its portrayal of the lives of two Somali immigrants to London, the cultural dislocation they feel, and the oppressive psychic climate of the East End estates that much of the story is set in.

That story is told almost entirely through the voices of an 18-year-old Somali immigrant named Meina, and a 16-year-old black English kid named James, who is the youngest of five drug-dealing brothers. Meina and James are brought together by the dark friendship James has with Meina's brother Ashvin. The two teenage boys converted their despair with life's possibilities into a suicide pact that led to Ashvin's death and James' near death. The bulk of the book follows James and Meina's attempt to pick up the threads of their shattered lives after this tragedy. (If this sounds familiar, it's because the plot, and indeed the book itself, is a kind of homage to James Baldwin's Another Country, which is somewhat tiresomely namechecked a number of times throughout.)

Their pain-filled story comes across like a kind of extreme kitchen sink drama -- imagine a film like Nil By Mouth as done by Spike Lee. The two must struggle to survive and find some way out of the grim slum life that surrounds them. James strikes the reader as a character fully informed by Akinti's own upbringing, and his anguish and frustration with life often feels like the writer's own catharsis -- and thus, sometimes kind of overthought and overwritten. At times his pain and confusion is wonderfully rendered, but at others, he comes across as far too sophisticated and existential an observer of life for a 16-year-old. Meanwhile, despite being raped a number of times in Somalia, Meina, provides a stable core to a story otherwise suffused with troubled souls, including her brother (who witnessed the torture and murder of their parents), at least one of James' gangster brothers and his crack-addict mother, not to mention some clueless well-meaning white folks.

The publisher seems to be positioning the book as a raw and angry one, but it never quite got to that level for me. James doesn't seem angry, so much as frustrated and dismissive of what society has to offer. Meina certainly never comes across as angry, and her brother comes across mainly as the victim of post-traumatic stress. Yes, there is some very graphic violence -- including a devastating rape scene (indeed, rape is a prevalent theme in the book) -- but I'm not sure that makes it a "raw." The final third of the book starts to veer into melodrama turf, especially the actions of one of James' brothers, which read more like a heavy handed metaphor for the black male condition than a realistic conclusion. In the end, it's this kind of heavy handedness that marks the book as a debut and kept me from really falling under its spell.

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the old council flats of London, a tragic event ripples through gang and racial warfare. James, a local black British teen from a *successful*crack-dealing family, and his best friend, Ashvin, a poet-loving Somali refugee, jump off a towering building, nooses around their necks, in a suicide pact. Ashvin dies and James survives. Ashvin's sister, Armeina (Meina), hooks up with James in shared grief to forge a tentative but tender friendship. This is their story.

There is a lot of potential in this plaintive novel of redemption. It has heart, and it murmurs. It doesn't quite sing, though. The story is narrated largely through Meina, with a few sections by James and other characters. The primary problem is that the author didn't adequately distinguish the separate voices of James and Meina--they are too similar. Even the cadence is synonymous, which you wouldn't expect from two people from separate countries and disparate backgrounds. Meina was raised in an educated home, by intellectual parents, and witnessed their terrifying, horrifying massacre at the hands of the Ethiopians during civil war strife. James was reared by the horrors and betrayals of his family and neighborhood. The lack of narrative distinction distracted and removed me from the immediacy of the story and conferred an unnatural tenor.

The book was described as tautly constructed, written with a controlled rage. I disagree. Rather, the voices were a bit precious and lacking in the subtext necessary for the reader to register the contained rage. There was restraint, but it was unintentional. The wattage was dimmed by authorial trepidation, as if Akinti was unsure of asserting the fury of his characters. This created a languid tone and lack of muscle in the prose delivery. It felt like he was playing it safe to ensure that we connected with and liked the characters. I would have preferred that he liberate himself from that self-conscious mode and get out of his own way.

Interestingly, his graphic scenes are very well done, crafted with menacing weight. They were not gratuitous. On the contrary, they exploded with tormenting finesse, like a coiled thunder. It permeated the prosaic air with a crackling heat. The violence that the Somalians endured during more than dozen civil wars is heartbreaking. And the devestrating terrors perpetrated on the youth in this London neighborhood are merciless and harrowing.

If this debut novel went through a few more drafts, it could be a dazzling, evocative story, as Akinti's talent is evident. I look forward to seeing how he evolves.

[Libraryscat · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was interesting that I received Forest Gate shortly after I The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Durrow. It, too, deals with racial issues, but from a very different perspective. I could not have planned my reading any better and I would like to thank Simon & Schuster Free Press for the opportunity to read and review this first novel by Peter Akinti. [return][return]For me, this book was an incredible work of genius. I read the book very quickly and realized only on the very last page that this was a novel. This is a testament to the authenticity of voice, place and character crafted by Akinti. I typically try not to learn too much about a book I am about to read and I honestly thought this was a personal memoir written by two people, together. I was truly amazed when I found that it was not....so what was it?[return]It begins as the story of two young Black boys, both living in the Forest Gate area of London, England. This is an impoverished area and both boys felt that they had no opportunities in the future - they decided to commit suicide together by jumping off twin towers. One boy lived, the other died. The boy who lived spent time recovering living with the sister of the dead boy. The story is told in alternating chapters with the boy and the girl narrating. The feelings of hopelessness are palpable. Sadly, the suicide attempts are not the worst aspects of the lives of these three young people. And the racist attitudes of the people in their part of London and the surrounding areas are in stark contrast to the European model portrayed by Durrow in the previous book. I suspect this is because human attitudes, good and bad, can be seen in every situation, in every place and time. Hopefully, as we all begin to explore the negative impact of these attitudes through fictional accounts such as these we will slowly begin to move beyond stereotypes and racism.

[Yassemin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forest Gate is Peter Akita's debut novel. I hadn't ever heard of him before until I came across his absolute gem of a debut in the library yesterday.

I'm going to start off by saying, its been a hell of a long time since I've felt the way I feel about this fantastic book. Sure, I've read mostly good books lately but this is not just a good book. The word good does not do it justice by half. I almost loved it as much as I loved an earlier book of the year by anothet author 'Shantaram'.

So what's it about? What kinda book is it? It's really hard to categorise this into any particularly genre so for me, I've classed it as that mostly all encompassing genre of contemp lit but begrudgingly as even that doesn't even wholly fit correctly.

A bit about the plot. So the book starts off with the death of a black kid who died after committing suicide following a suicide pact made with his best friend James- also black.That's all I'm gonna give you... other than the book explores the reasons for the guys deciding to end their lives. James doesn't die and he and the protaganists sister strike up a relationship of sorts where everything is out in the open. The book explores black history, racism and gang culture. All fascinatibg stuff.

It's not an easy or happy read but it"s a thought provoking and well written one.

I already love this author and plan on buying his next one.

For the record I picked this up on a whim' not my usual book at all but absolutely loved it. All characters fully developed. Amazing

[Tyler Stoffel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forest Gate told a very dark tale of multiple rapes, murder and suicide, but with such detailed backstory that I fully understood the motivations behind the actions, as terrible as they were. Akinti goes as far as making the reader believe the rape of the Ethiopaian boy Namal is justified by Ashvin's own rape years earlier. All throughout, the reader really feels the pain of the characters.

All of the main characters carry such heavy loads of their dark lives. All are young, black and completely marginalized in English society by the mere circumstances of their births. Two Somali refugees and the youngest son of a family of drug dealers and a crackhead mom. The top supporting characters are a former intelligence operative with a shady background and the oldest of the drug dealing brothers, a man feared and respected about the neighborhood. The characters motivations behind the atrocious acts they commit are very believable, Akinti does a good job of making the reader understand the high suicide and crime rate among young black men in Britain.

Told from the first person of three different characters, in a mix of past and present, this is a well constructed story. The jumping of time and perspective is handled very cleanly. I don't see how the story would be improved by a single perspective, for the story to have power, it's necesary to see the circumstances of the different characters close up.

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the moment I started reading this book I was entranced by the truthful, raw, elegant, and articulate way of writing. The author makes you want to keep reading, want to keep imagining... There were so many truths about the state of our societies - the way men in particular are forced to put on a harsh facade and "play the game" even if they abhor it.

The stories of Somalia were painful, but so beautiful. The stories of the family made me feel like I was looking at a picture of a beautiful flower in the middle of a violent storm and hoping it would emerge unscathed, or be resilient enough to bounce back once the storm subsided. Sometimes all the resiliency in the world cannot save one from the destruction that we bring upon ourselves. The parallels between the gang run neighborhoods in London and Somalia and my own experiences in the Caribbean shocked me. They are all so similar. The last few books I read were suicide heavy. I finished Ana Karenina and they even talked about that book in this book. So funny! I have chosen my reading list well I suppose.

I was impressed by the writing, the grace of the story, the ease with which the author was able to depict troubling circumstances, and the way he made me come to know the characters. I often find endings abrupt and I found this ending sort of abrupt at first and then it dissolved into a dream of "what will come."

[Nancy Motto · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a unflinching look at life in the ghettos of East London. Two boy's are so completely without hope that they decide to attempt suicide together. One lives, One dies. The story then follow the struggles of the boy who lived as well as the sister of the boy who died. I think at times we who have not struggled with such overwhelming violence and despair, don't understand people's inability to rise above their circumstances. In this book we see the indestructible web of cultural and family ties that make it almost impossible for some to make a positive change. James, the black boy who lived, wants to break away from the poverty and drugs that threaten to swallow him, especially since it is his four brother and mother who are the largest drug dealers in the tower block. Meina, the sister of the boy who died, is a somali orphan, who witnessed the brutal murder of her parents,and wants to escape the horrible memories in order to make a better life for herself. She and James befriend each other and ultimately the book ends on a hopeful note. I really love books that challenge me to reexamine my world perspective.

[Natoya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Funny thing I had gotten it free as an advanced reader copy - so it sat around my house for about 2 years as I read the books I purchased. The synopsis didn't grab me at first but when I finally read the novel, I was amazed at all of it. The writing is amazing; the narrative is gritty, honest, and emotional; and the plot is hopeful and hopeless (as in you hope for better for the characters but you know a happy ending would be unrealistic). The novel deals with the experiences of the characters living in a rough neighborhood of London. It starts with two teens who promise to kill themselves but one survives and the other dies. The one who survives must now learn to live with the reality of the life he wanted to escape while also developing a kindred connection with the dead teen's sister. Poverty, race, refugee perspective, depression, and sexuality are some of the themes floating through the novel. I felt Akinti didn't dumb down the themes or over analyze anything and I felt for the characters. Once again the writing is amazing.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really sure what to say. The cover blurb promised angry and I didn't really get angry, which was in a way a disappointment since I was thinking I'd get something along the lines of Le The Au Harem D'Archi Ahmed. There are some nice metaphors along the way "chewing on her lie" and so on, but while it reminds me a little of Camus' The Stranger, there's something more arbitrary about this one, and the big shocking event toward the end could have used some more buildup since I felt I hadn't been given the chance to see it coming so I could feel all smart and brilliant and genius and validated and everything.

I get that the author is disappointed in England, somehow he thinks the U.S. is "better" on racism than the U.K. (a thoroughly dubious proposition if you ask me). Anyway. The writing was good, clean, readable, not ornate so at least you know what's going on clearly enough. I mean, for $1 it was pretty good.

[Christy Trever · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forest Gate by Peter Akinti is a shattering look at life as a Somali refugee in London. James and Meina struggle to find a new life after the suicide of her brother, his best friend. The young men had made a pact, but when James' rope didn't snap his neck, he realized that life was worth fighting for, and he survived. The two recreate the days leading up to the tragedy as they slowly fall in love. Meina is a strong young woman who has already been "married" six times by her greedy aunt before she was rescued and brought to London. James faces unimaginable humiliation and horror in his life. Too smart to fit in with his drug dealing brothers, and always at risk of attack by the police or rival gangs, he's been forced to disengage from day to day life. This dark tale is almost unreadable at times for the stark horror it portrays, but the message of hope is powerful.

[Borbality · Rating 3 out of 5]

And here I thought the low-ish rating was just for the uncomfortable rape scenes. Turns out the thing just fizzles out.

Starts out very promising. A kind of brutal look at black poverty in the UK.

However, what kind of ruins any artistic mystery here with the vague ending is an essay that acts as the final chapter, with the author explaining everything about the book and his life. Kind of ruined it for me.

The ending was a letdown as it is, but if you're going to do the sudden ending thing where nothing is answered, you can't just add a chapter at the end and explain all your intentions and everything, can you? I mean I guess he doesn't explain what happens after the book closes, but still.

It's still a good debut novel and worth a read. Akinti is fearless in his ideas and blunt in his delivery.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raw and sad this debut novel delivers on its promise of a view into modern London's East End. Blacks in England tend to be Caribbean or African and it is those influences that they've brought with them. I find this to be in contrast with African Americans who were brought here forcibly and whose sensibilities are somewhat different.

Akinti takes a careful and measured look at the consequences of violence and racism on individuals and groups. His characters are worth knowing and the situations he puts them in are believable, even at their most awful. His writing style is firm, clear, and unflinching with an eye towards both the banality and the brutality of every day life. Very much worth reading.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got the book at BAM on one of the discount shelves. Because this is a book I would not likely have noticed otherwise, I consider it a good find. There were a few inconsistencies in the book which troubled me a little. Also, Meina and James seemed old beyond their years but maybe that is what happens when you grow up in such a harsh and despairing world? The story, filled with rape, violence, and harassment by gangs, soldiers and police is deep and disturbing with references to actual racial events, books and people. I often found myself putting down the book and reading up on the incidents, books and people cited. Any time a book makes me curious enough to seek out more information and want to learn more, it is well worth the time to read.

[Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book did an amazing job of conveying the heart of the black male project/council flat experience. one of the most poignant moments in the book is when the main character got into a chest-puffing match with another man on the tube. it was heartbreaking to think that men have to resort to violence just to combat this idea of being thought of as a punk. there is a lot of violence and brutality in the book, but a tenderness that made me misty-eyed as well.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one beautifully written book. I did not give it more stars because it was so depressing. I thought that it would turn around but it wasn't. I loved the writing style of the author. Suicide and the atrocities committed by people on the African continent with the support of outsiders make the book depressing. However, the love that develops between the sister and the one who didn't die makes it worthwhile in the end.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Forest Gate starts out strong, then runs aground in a haze of improbabilities. Two boys, one a Somali refugee and the other a black Briton attempt suicide in the harrowing, drug-infested projects the inhabit. The Briton survives and goes on to romance the sister of his dead Somali friend. Somalia is evoked in all its brutality, and the projects and drug-dealing brothers of the Briton work well. A well-meaning white Briton does less, but least of all is the rosy ending in a foreign land.

[Nicola Waldron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book to change lives--how we view the world, and how we might look out on it, and each other, in the future. Distressing and brilliant, an examination of the darkest of undersides--London and beyond. Forest Gate: a place I once lived and couldn't wait to escape, but I really had no idea...
This one will challenge you at the very core: a fine example of Kafka's 'axe to smash the frozen sea within us'....a very rocky but absolutely worthwhile path to compassion.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

There aren't enough books about the urban poor in the global North, the violence and illness and struggles they go through. The fact that this book combines the trauma of growing up poor among gangs in a wealthy city with the trauma of growing up relatively wealthy in a poor country surrounded by thugs and violence makes it more interesting. Good book!

[VJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am learning about the clash between Ethiopians, Somalis, and Eritreans through this harrowing story of siblings who, after the murder of their parents, are moved to London where Ashvin commits suicide and Meina takes up with the young man who tried to kill himself along with her brother. Very violent and sexually explicit.

[Te Yang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking...Finished the book in 1 and a half days with mixed emotions still lingering which ceases my need to read my next book in line. I just can't get over the harsh third-world experience the characters are in. Yet, it gives me a sense of relief and satisfaction through out their growth and formation as the story goes on. A page turner, powerful, a must read...

[Tuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

its amazing how wars, racism, fanaticism, poverty, and imperialism all manifest in folks lives in almost the exact same ways, no matter who or where those people are. Brules in south Dakota or Somalis in London. it aint pretty. this is a great 1st novel.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a little bit hard to read, very violent, opens with a suicide. I had to skip over some scenes. And I was left wondering about some things, like how she was sold as a virgin bride 6 times.

[Nathan Huff · Rating 5 out of 5]

We should keep an eye on Peter. He's not just an extraordinary literary voice. He's also a messenger. He delivers a very disturbing, violent, and angry message with his debut. I can't help but think that he has a lot more to tell us.

[Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't even realize there was a "Black" problem in the UK until I heard about the riots on the news recently. This fiction was graphic but did not ruin my sensibilities. Life in the "hood" and love between two innocents were realistically told. I would recommend it.

[Doug Keel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be a great eye-opener as to another side of London and the immigrant story that many may not be aware of. Akinti's telling of two African refugees/immigrants from a war-torn region is haunting and brutal, but speaks many truths.