Losing the Plot
by Derek Owusu
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Pub Date Feb 06 2024 | Archive Date Apr 04 2024
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Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR PEOPLE'S BOOK PRIZE - FICTION 2023
A vital and honest book exploring the pain of the immigrant experience and the turmoil it can carry across generations, from the winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize.
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.
Advance Praise
"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." — Michael Donkor
"A love letter - sometimes dense, often moving - written by a son to his mother." — Guardian
"Owusu is one of the most original writers today." — Stephan Tobler
"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 densely poetic act of resistance." — Times Literary Supplement
"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." — Bad Form
"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
"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
"A biting glimpse of the immigrant experience relayed in a distinctive Ghanaian-British voice." — Financial Times
"[Losing the Plot has] category-confounding form . . . vulnerability and tough beauty." — Hephzibah Anderson / Observer
"A highly enigmatic, affectionate and robustly written portrayal of a mother-son relationship... very relatable." — Diana Evans
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781838855628 |
| PRICE | CA$29.50 (CAD) |
| PAGES | 160 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Krista T, Bookseller
Losing the Plot is a jumpy, episodic account of a woman who moves from Ghana to London: confusing and playful; jarring and poetic; this reads like a love letter from the woman’s son (who acts as narrator, providing explanatory footnotes throughout), and while the whole is difficult to parse — and especially with untranslated passages in the woman’s native Twi — that would seem to be the point: how could a young man, born and raised in London’s Tottenham neighbourhood, possibly understand his mother’s immigrant experience at an intimate level? Although quite short (I read it through twice, back to back), author Derek Owusu has created something weighty and intriguing here, and I loved the whole thing.
Reviewer 1327514
The book reads more like a memoir than a novella, even though it is a fictionalized version of the characters' experiences. The style changes throughout the book, with certain sections being poetic and abstract. Even with the changes in style I could still follow along and I appreciated the son's tone which added some necessary exposition. Overall, a quick and thought-provoking read! I would recommend it if you enjoy novellas, memoirs, and poetry.
