'A moving exploration of family, migration, class, queerness and belonging… beautifully rendered' JESSICA ANDREWS

'A deeply observant, perceptive writer' JOANNA CANNON

'Evocative, layered and emotionally resonant… deserves to be on your reading list' GLAMOUR

'Masterful… It will stay with you long after you finish it' JJ BOLA

‘Love was a tightrope between freedom and control. He didn’t know how others seemed to walk it with ease’

Elom can’t make sense of love. It’s like a language he can’t speak, though he’s heard the words before.

He wants to feel understood – by his well-meaning yet misapprehending family, his self-assured partner Ben, and his boisterous friends – but he never knows the right thing to say.

How can you know yourself, in a world that’s constantly changing?

Set across Ghana and Scotland, this is an intimate portrait of one man’s search for belonging, a family’s attempt to love, and the choices that make a life.

GLOWING READER REVIEWS

‘Fiamanya's writing is just gorgeous – it's tender, it's unflinching, and it's totally immersive’

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘This is one of the best books I’ve read this year, and I truly hope more people discover it’

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘All in all this was an absolutely stunning debut novel, I cannot wait to read more of Fiamanya's work in the future’

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘Hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking, this took my breath away. Wow, what a gorgeous novel. I can't recommend this enough’

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Details

ISBN13: 9780008509576
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 368
Edition:
Publication Date: 30 Apr 2025
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 21.6(H)x13.5(L)x3.3(W)340
Weight (gm): 340

Author Biography

Selali Fiamanya born in 1992 and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, with a couple of years spent in Accra, Ghana. He won a place on the inaugural Breakthrough Novel-Writing Course for Black Writers run by Curtis Brown Creative. He is currently undertaking his GP training in Scotland. This is his first novel.

Reviews

A moving exploration of family, migration, class, queerness and belonging. Tender and troubling, Selali Fiamanya’s debut shows us the ways in which a loss of language can manifest as a loss of love. This beautifully rendered novel explores what happens to our sense of self when the world around us is shifting and unstable'

-- Jessica Andrews

A deeply observant, perceptive writer

-- Joanna Cannon

A moving and masterful debut… tells an untold story that tenderly treads the lines of tradition and modernity, love and loss, courage and fear, and hope and despair. It will stay with you long after you finish it

-- JJ Bola

A poignant multigenerational story exploring themes of identity, belonging, and the complexities of queer love, set across Ghana, Glasgow and London… Fiamanya's evocative prose paints a vivid portrait of a family's love and the choices that define a life. Layered and emotionally resonant, this is a literary novel that deserves to be on your reading list.

* Glamour *

A remarkable debut; quietly devastating, utterly moving and beautifully wrought

-- Jendella Benson

Warm, engrossing, deeply moving. I loved these characters

-- Holly Brickley

Remarkably nuanced and deeply absorbing… transcends its subject matter through its portrayal, not only of family, but of the numerous ambivalences of love, loyalty, loss, friendship and rupture. A heartbreaking and uplifting novel

-- Jacob Ross

Stunning… powerful, profound and poignant… at once beautiful and raw

* Sunday Post *

A deeply honest and compelling book… expansive, surprising, delightful, vulnerable and always real. Wonderfully broad and deliciously bold, this is a much-needed and timely addition to British fiction

-- Olumide Popoola

An ambitious debut that picks apart the intricacies of family life, exposing both the painful and joyous sides of humanity to the reader, so that we wonder about these characters long after turning that final page

-- Maame Blue

Brilliant… a moving, empathic reckoning with the cost and contradictions of self-making in a world of unknowns. I read it in one enthralled sitting

-- Peter Scalpello

His deep understanding of and sympathy for his four central characters lends a quiet authority to Before We Hit the Ground that’s particularly impressive for a debut novelist, as he shades each of them in with the kind of revealing details that communicate real lived experience

-- * The Herald *

A beautifully written and deeply relatable debut, this novel lays bare the quiet battles of self-expression, the intricacies of family relationships, and the struggle to find where one truly belongs. Selali captures the rift between generations, the yearning for connection, and the delicate tension of balancing two worlds. Vivid, humorous, and full of heart, this is a story that lingers long after the final page

-- Musih Tedji Xaviere

A novel of remarkable depth and compassion – heartbreaking yet ultimately life-affirming in its insistence that the search for belonging, however fraught, remains essential to our humanity

* Gscene *

A moving meditation on love, family, heritage, queerness and purpose

* AnOther Magazine *