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Right from the start, this book highlighted how family driven the story was with the family tree on the cover (genius idea by the way), seeing how Sayon related to different members of his family who had different religions, cultural believes, focus and even different fears. We see him question what it means to be good or bad employing different ideologies, it was just amazing to read! Cuba is a character the likes of which I’ve never read before. He affects you to your core, especially his reactions to Sayons final piece of news confronting with what actually occurs (no spoilers here)!! No, I can’t imagine writing about any of the characters again, but I’m adapting it into a screenplay at the moment. But regarding writing another book, I’ve got too many ideas I want to do outside of this, rather than revisit this. Sayon’s long term girlfriend is Shona, now an up-and-coming music agent/producer she is also the daughter of a pastor – Lyle Jennings. Lyle’s Baptist church is more fundamentalist, and bible based than Errol’s more charismatic church and Shona is much closer to her parents than Sayon (in fact still living at home in a relatively idealistic home set up – note than we only really see Shona through Sayon’s eyes so we realise that her character and set up are idealised by him).
An Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie | Hachette UK An Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie | Hachette UK
Boysah, yuh better lef di poor gyal loose, Sayon. Maybe next time mi bump innah Marcia mi could tell er, dem deserve fi know exactly who deh date dem daughter. I had never entered the adolescent stage of thinking myself immortal. My mortality was as real to me as the soil I shovelled onto the aunts, uncles and cousins we buried. That was one of the downfalls of having a large family: the funerals outnumbered even the weddings. Growing up, Sayon found respite from the chaos of his environment in the love and loyalty of his brother-in-arms, Cuba; in the example of his cousin Hakim, a man once known as the most infamous drug-dealer in their neighbourhood, now a proselytising Muslim; and in the tenderness of his girl, Shona, whose own sense of purpose galvanises Sayon’s. 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. 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.Announcing the arrival of a promising 23-year-old author whose work is wise beyond his years' GUARDIAN 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. The other really distinctive aspect of the novel is its religious underpinning. Each chapter starts with an epigraph – the majority bible verses (which typically fit the chapter well if not perfectly or clunkily) with some Jamaican proverbs and (particularly towards the end) some Quran verses. And the theme of religion and in particular sin/damnation/repentance/redemption is vital to the book, to Sayon’s dilemma and his journey and to the reaction of his mother, Nanny and prospective father-in-law to him and his decisions. In the book the national law as represented by the “Feds” is probably closer to an annoying and biased tax or occupational hazard rather than a rule to be respected – so that the justice both of the streets but particularly as mediated by religion is far more crucial. For the characters in the book some form of religious underpinning is taken almost as read and a choice between different shades of Christianity, Islam or Rastafarianism is more due to personal circumstances – for example with Sayon on a journey from Christianity to Islam informed really by his embrace of the need for some form of religious discipline alongside his rejection of what he sees as the hypocrisy of his parents. My only complaint is that it was excessive with the character Pastor Lyle. Other than that, it's worth the read. 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:
Clients | The Ampersand Agency Moses McKenzie | Clients | The Ampersand Agency
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. 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.Big fan of young love in books.. it makes me want to jump out of the window in the best way possible. I like the emphasis on family. I loved the emphasis on faith. I also loved the fact that it was based in Bristol! As well as some vibrant prose (see the lengthy quote above), there are some brilliant figures of speech: “They hit every R' like joyriders hitting speed bumps” for a the accent of some (white) Bristolian builders; and “an ostentation of whites” to describe a group of early-gentrification phase inhabitants of the area – were for me worth the book price alone. I’m currently reading A Dictionary of Symbols. I just finished Sigmund Freud’s Moses and Monotheism. What else am I reading? I’m reading the Qur’an. I’m reading Don Quixote as well at the moment, but I mean, I love books, and I just finished Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez, which is insane. Cuba put his arms across his little chest and huffed in the manner of a man about to embark upon yet another noble quest. ‘Say no more, g, but if you’re gonna buy it den man’ll help you, init. Dat’s what family’s for.’ A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
An Olive Grove in Ends By Moses McKenzie | Used - Wob An Olive Grove in Ends By Moses McKenzie | Used - Wob
If you're coming to Coles by car, why not take advantage of the 2 hours free parking at Sainsbury's Pioneer Square - just follow the signs for Pioneer Square as you drive into Bicester and park in the multi-storey car park above the supermarket. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. You don't need to shop in Sainsbury's to get the free parking! Where to Find UsSo, I started writing prose in 2017. Before that I’d write song lyrics, and I wrote three manuscripts before I wrote An Olive Grove in Ends. Yes, three manuscripts and then a screenplay. And they were all of varying quality; the premises had varying ideas, some of them good, some of them bad. And then some of them were poorly executed. All of them were poorly executed! But yeah, then I wrote An Olive Grove in Ends in 2019. His long term aim (as set out in the first chapter) is to buy a Clifton based mansion that his mother first showed him as a child – and his drug dealing and other criminal activities have got him close to that aim with nearly 80% of the price in cash; however just before the novel’s starts (and this is not a spoiler as it is revealed from the second chapter) Sayon kills someone to protect Cuba and is now desperately scrambling to cover this up so as to maintain his dream (and his relationship with Shona) This involves him effectively needing to make a breach with his own family and come under the influence of Shona’s father who, having always resented her relationship with Sayon, now sees Sayon’s salvation as his life project.
An Olive Grove in Ends (Audio Download): Moses McKenzie
A rare glimpse into the harsh realities of street life and love in luminous prose, rendered with sensitivity and without sentimentalism. An astonishing debut’ Cherie Jones, author of HOW THE ONE-ARMED SISTER SWEEPS HER HOUSE WINNER: HAWTHORNDEN PRIZE 2023; SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD 2023;SOHO HOUSE BREAKTHROUGH WRITER AWARD 2022There 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. The difference between where I lived and where I wanted to be living was laughable. I wrung my hands as I walked and comforted myself with the knowledge that I would be rid of the filth soon; all I had to do was remain free. Luminous prose, rendered with sensitivity and without sentimentalism. An astonishing debut' Cherie Jones, author of HOW THE ONE-ARMED SISTER SWEEPS HER HOUSE The water that ran from pond to pond had no foul smell. It was lazy, like a river of clarified honey. I thought if I knelt to taste it I might have refreshed myself after such a disappointing day, but Cuba had other ideas. He pointed towards the house. ‘Yo, you wanna see what’s inside?’ Aunty Paulette was my mama’s younger sister and she had spent much of her life inside. She wore a fistful of gold rings and one of them chains from Claire’s with the letter ‘P’ in bold italics. Her favourite thing to do was to jam her finger into older men’s chests and tell them that she was twice the man they were.
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