White Spaces - Elvin James Mensah

The brilliant and beautiful new book from the author of Small Joys. A hymn to brotherly love and its transcendent power to heal. To the outside world, Teddy seems to have things sorted. A senior editor at a music magazine before turning 30, he's smart, practical and dependable: the one his friends turn to for support when things become complicated. His old school friends Kain and Nathan have their fair share of issues. Kain is trying to get his music career back on track, while struggling to come to terms with his sexuality, and Nathan is still living with his parents, while working three jobs to help bring up his son. For none of them, however, are things more complicated than they are for Birch. Wayward, unpredictable and impossible not to love, Birch veers impulsively from one calamity to the next but, whenever things get really bad, one person is always there to help him pick up the pieces. But what if things were to get so bad that even Teddy couldn't fix them? And who would be there to fix Teddy if they did? Set in the London of 2012 with a supporting cast of normal and extraordinary characters, White Spaces tells, with Mensah's inimitable warmth and humour, the story of four young Black men coming of age in a city on the cusp of change. It poses challenging questions about the way we were and the world we were creating, while always holding on to a powerful belief in the strength of love and friendship to overcome the worst that life can throw at us. Hilarious, heartbreaking and hopeful, White Spaces is an unforgettable novel that cements Mensah's reputation as one of the most exciting young British novelists working today.Â