Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

That Reminds Me

By: Derek Owusu
Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2020
___________________________________

Anansi, your four gifts raised to nyame granted you no power over the stories I tell...

This is the story of K.

K is sent into care before a year marks his birth. He grows up in fields and woods, and he is happy, he thinks. When K is eleven, the city reclaims him. He returns to an unknown mother and a part-time father, trading the fields for flats and a community that is alien to him. Slowly, he finds friends. Eventually, he finds love. He learns how to navigate the city. But as he grows, he begins to realise that he needs more than the city can provide. He is a man made of pieces. Pieces that are slowly breaking apart.

That Reminds Me is the story of one young man, from birth to adulthood, told in fragments of memory. It explores questions of identity, belonging, addiction, sexuality, violence, family and religion. It is a deeply moving and completely original work of literature from one of the brightest British writers of today.

©2019 Derek Owusu (P)2019 Penguin Audio
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Incomparable World cover art
Dark Neighbourhood cover art
A Girl Called Rumi cover art
The Bricks That Built the Houses cover art
Refugee Boy cover art
Willow Weeps cover art
The Things We Thought We Knew cover art
Afraid of the Light cover art
When God Was a Rabbit cover art
Slay in Your Lane Presents: Loud Black Girls cover art
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies cover art
Coming Undone cover art
Divided cover art
Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power cover art
Who's Loving You cover art

Critic reviews

"Heartbreaking, important and original." (Christie Watson, author of The Language of Kindness)

"Derek Owusu’s writing is honest, moving, delicate, but tough. Once you lock on to his words, it is hard to break eye contact. A beautiful meditation on childhood, coming of age, the now, and the media. This work is heartfelt." (Benjamin Zephaniah)

"Honest and beautiful." (Guy Gunaratne, author of In Our Mad and Furious City)

What listeners say about That Reminds Me

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    30
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    32
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    25
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Intriguing



Derek Owusu is on the Granta list of young British authors for 2023 which is why I downloaded this book

The title of That Reminds Me suggests those ideas and memories which emerge randomly and jostle in your head. It’s a fitting title for this highly idiosyncratic and fragmentary novel about K (born like Derek himself of Ghanaian parents) from childhood to deeply troubled young man.


Owusu’s novel (which is more of a memoir) is extremely succinct (160 minutes listening only), and its fragmentary quality in its numbered and extremely fleeting paragraphs, each one dealing with one intensely vivid episode. His language is adventurous and striking with some powerful sections and some having the rhythms of poetry. There are times however when meaning is strangled.
The experiences which Owusu recreates are intensely visceral and graphic , such as his years in a foster home, his mother’s illness and his family’s tough life in 1990s Tottenham, his love for his baby brother, his feelings of alienation and self-loathing, his early sexual experiences, and his social and cultural struggles growing up.
Then there are the horrors of his mental deterioration and the periods of self-harming which are described in unflinching detail. At the end of the Audible recording there is a long list of contacts for help for listeners affected by this section. I don’t know whether this is in the book or just on audio, but I found that it detracted from the book, upsetting the balance of what is a child-man story, not one focussing exclusively on self-harm.
The narration by the Ghanaian actor Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is first class, totally in tune with the text, culture and voices.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping and fantastic

This book is beautifully written and the words used convey such raw emotion. I found myself totally emersed in the story and how relatable it was to me. The narrator also gives a fantastic performance that brings life and voice to the story and characters. This book really is wonderful and inspirational. So for that reason I'll be recommending this book to people in my life.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

stunning

beautiful narration of wonderful prose. it's hard hitting but the slippery poetry is gorgeous

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Immensely well written

This is such a fascinating book, really well Written and narrated. One I may well read more than once in order to fully grasp

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Prose poem performed brilliantly

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's reading here is sensitive and assured -- anyone who has heard his narration of Ben Aaronovitch's _Rivers of London_ series will know that he has all the skills for being a great story teller. His Ghanaian heritage, shared with the author, makes him a fitting and capable choice for Owusu's poetic book, with its specific mix of voices, languages, and accents.

It should be noted that the printed version of this book has minor differences from the version in the audio here (notably 'African deities' for 'Greek deities' on p.93--I wonder which is Owusu's first thought and which his later revision here), but the text is substantially the same.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The bitter truth

True life of being born into care & then the harsh reality of learning to know your real family. All the, often unsupported mental health issues which go hand in hand with this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

brillance

The poetic words of the the story flow into each other telling the story of unsettlement

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!