The sensational debut novel about love, friendship and finding happiness in the most unexpected places.
'';Elvin James MensahsSmall Joysis breathtaking and heartrending, by turns hilarious and devastating and surprising and wild. Mensahs prose makes the intangible deft and tremendousfrom the balm of friendship, to the beauty of queerness, and the all-encompassing elixir of community. Tender, thrilling, and honest;Small Joysis a beam of light.''Bryan Washington, author of Memorial
'';I adored Small Joys a sweet, moving, funny, strikingly open story. I don''t know if I''ve ever rooted so much for a protagonist as I did for Harley what a gorgeous novel.'' Jennifer Saint, No. 1 bestselling author of Elektra
This heartwarming, witty, and moving debut is one of the most charming books youll read this year. Exploring love, friendship, grief, and the bittersweet joy of being young, Small Joys is utterly beautiful. Louise ONeill, bestselling author of Idol
I loved it - Small Joys is a wonderful bookfullof music, life and a great deal of heart. Anextremely BIG joy! Matson Taylor, bestselling author ofThe Miseducation of Evie Epworth
'';A captivatingly tender novel . . . it''s beautiful.'' Natasha Onwuemezi, The Bookseller
'';Could I one day inspire happiness in others, the same way he seemed to do in me?''
Harley is a young queer Black man struggling to find his way in mid-noughties Britain. Returning home to Dartford, having just dropped out of an undergraduate course in music journalism, he is wracked by feelings of failure and inadequacy. Standing in the local woods one day, on the verge of doing something drastic and irreversible, his hand is stayed by a stranger: a tall husky guy who emerges from the bushes holding a pair of binoculars.
Muddy is an ebullient Mancunianwhose lust for his own life makes others feel better by association. A keen birdwatcher, rugby fanatic and Oasis obsessive, he quickly becomes a devoted and loyal friend to Harley who finds his enthusiasm infectious and his dimples irresistible. In no time at all, they become inseparable. Harley starts to think that life may be worth living after all, while Muddy discovers things about himself that the lads down the rugby club may struggle to understand.
But when figures from the past threaten to plunge Harley back into the depths of depression, his only hope of survival is Muddy and the small joys they create together.
Moving, funny and tender,Small Joysis an epic novel about ordinary lives that introduces the world to an unforgettable cast of characters and a major new literary talent.
