Book Club: Grow Where They Fall
A novel by Michael Donkor that explores contemporary queer life in London.
Published in 2024, Grow Where They Fall is a novel by Michael Donkor.
What's it about?
Bright and precocious ten-year-old Kwame Akromah knows how to behave. He knows the importance of good manners, how to stay at the top of the class and out of the way when his mother and father are angry with each other. But when his charismatic cousin Yaw arrives from Ghana to live with the family while he looks for work, the rules Kwame has learned about the world can no longer guide him.
Twenty years later, Kwame is a secondary-school teacher, popular with his students and depended on by his friends. His is a life spent elegantly weaving between the classroom, the labyrinth of Grindr politics and increasingly intermittent visits to his parents’ home. Behind the confident façade, however, he is as driven by caution as he was as a boy.
But when electrifying changemaker Marcus Felix is appointed as headteacher, Kwame must reckon with himself as he never has before. Can he face the ghosts of his childhood? How will he learn to move through the world without losing who he is? And where does existing stop and living begin?
Is Grow Where They Fall worth reading?
Michael Donkor was born in London to Ghanaian parents. He's worked as a school-teacher. He's clearly drawing on a lot of personal insights into the immigrant experience, Ghanaian family dynamics, growing up in London, and contemporary queer life.
Donkor has an obvious affection for his characters - finding plenty of humour amidst the roller-coaster of emotions that Kwame is constantly navigating.
The dual timeline - switching between 10-year-old Kwame and 30-year-old Kwame - effectively drives the narrative forward without becoming muddled or confusing.
This is a long book. While the world of 10-year-old Kwame is sharply realised, there's less clarity around who 30-year-old Kwame has become. There's also not quite enough payoff when the "drama" surrounding the character of Yaw is finally revealed.
There was much about this book that reminded me of the novels of Alan Hollinghurst - particularly the aspect of an "outsider" navigating encounters with wealthy English people. That's not a bad thing - Hollinghurst is a very accomplished writer - but it does detract a little from the freshness of Donkor's storytelling.
Overall, it's a readable book that gives you a distinct perspective on queer life in London.
What are the themes explored in Grow Where They Fall?
It's a coming-of-age story, or sorts. What Donkor gives us are moments of clarity for the character of Kwame - plot-points that provide Kwame with opportunities for growth and understanding. Frustratingly, adult Kwame doesn't seem to make much progress in expanding the limits of who he might become - we seem to leave that character pretty much in the same place as where we found him.
Sexuality is front-and-centre in this story but Kwame's sexuality isn't what drives this narrative forward. His "problem" isn't that he's gay, that's just part of who he is.
Kwame's struggle with intimacy is a recurring theme. The relationship between Kwame's parents seems to have played a clear role in shaping how Kwame engages with others - he seems unable to to allow himself to be vulnerable in an emotional context.
The present-day year in which this story is set is 2018 - the murky years that followed the Brexit vote in the UK. This was a time when a sense of limbo and uncertainty pervaded everything.
Kwame's experience of racism is clearly flagged throughout the story, contrasted against Edwyn whose class and privilege makes him oblivious to the micro-aggressions that Kwame struggles to ignore.
As an English teacher, Kwame is teaching his students about Mrs Dalloway and Tess of the D'Urbervilles. There's some loose parallels between the protagonists of those books and challenges that the adult Kwame is facing - particularly around social class but also how people find their place in the world.
Why is Grow Where They Fall an important novel for gay men?
While this book probably won't change your life, it's a readable story that centres a queer black man from an immigrant family.
If you live in London, there's lots that will feel familiar, but much of Kwame's experience is universal as he struggles to figure out who he is and make sense of the world around him.
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