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To Fill a Yellow House
Authors' Club Best First Novel Award, 2023
‘Nothing short of a joy’ Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water
When Kwasi and his family move abruptly from one side of London to the other, he sets out to explore his new home. Escaping the watchful eyes of Ma and Da and his irrepressible Aunties, he discovers the local high street and a hidden river. Back at the yellow house, he spends hours drawing, distracting himself from thoughts of the new school that awaits.
As the years pass, the high street remains a source of fascination for Kwasi. But behind the ever-changing shopfronts, it’s a different story. Business is slow and times are getting tougher. Widower Rupert has been trying to hold on to the dreams he and his wife poured into their eclectic charity shop, The Chest of Small Wonders, but now he is close to giving up.
One October night, Kwasi finds himself in trouble and takes refuge in the Chest, and an unexpected friendship begins. As he and Rupert unite to save the shop, they each find a sense of belonging. But old patterns are hard to change, and as tensions around them escalate, difficult choices lie ahead.
Lyrical, witty, moving and timely, To Fill a Yellow House is a story of community, friendship and the power of creativity and connection. It is as vibrant and surprising as the city it is set in and marks the arrival of a bright and bold new talent.
When Kwasi and his family move abruptly from one side of London to the other, he sets out to explore his new home. Escaping the watchful eyes of Ma and Da and his irrepressible Aunties, he discovers the local high street and a hidden river. Back at the yellow house, he spends hours drawing, distracting himself from thoughts of the new school that awaits.
As the years pass, the high street remains a source of fascination for Kwasi. But behind the ever-changing shopfronts, it’s a different story. Business is slow and times are getting tougher. Widower Rupert has been trying to hold on to the dreams he and his wife poured into their eclectic charity shop, The Chest of Small Wonders, but now he is close to giving up.
One October night, Kwasi finds himself in trouble and takes refuge in the Chest, and an unexpected friendship begins. As he and Rupert unite to save the shop, they each find a sense of belonging. But old patterns are hard to change, and as tensions around them escalate, difficult choices lie ahead.
Lyrical, witty, moving and timely, To Fill a Yellow House is a story of community, friendship and the power of creativity and connection. It is as vibrant and surprising as the city it is set in and marks the arrival of a bright and bold new talent.
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Reviews
A timely, unique and moving tale of inner city pressure.
[A] vividly drawn and evocative debut novel.
A thought-provoking and stunning debut. Kwasi will break your heart.
Gorgeous . . . Textured, beautiful, all-engaging characters, a wonderfully realised setting, glorious prose - To Fill A Yellow House left me all warm with hope. What a debut.
Anie's skilful debut novel follows the development of an unlikely bond between a shopkeeper and a young boy in a hostile inner-city environment... it rings with such keen and resonant themes... Kwasi's voice is majestically narrated, folding in Anie's authorial drive with his own syncopated artistic sensitivity.
Deeply affecting and sensitively told, with a main character you will fall in love with, break your heart over, and fervently root for all the way to the last page, To Fill A Yellow House is a transporting and beautiful story that will stay with me for a long time. Original and tender, it is an exquisite, absorbing and buoyant story of vulnerability and companionship, the redemptive power of friendship, and the spaces we choose to belong. Sussie Anie is a master storyteller and readers will be thinking about and missing Kwasi long after the last triumphant page!
Stunning . . . a lyrical meditation on city life, creativity and loss, and the hope that can spring from an unlikely friendship.
A gentle, thoughtful and moving meditation on London and what it means to belong. The characters have really stayed with me.
I read Anie's novel slowly, savouring every delicate turn of language, every sentence which thrummed with emotion. Following Kwasi and Rupert through this novel was often heartbreaking, but left me hopeful too. Reading this was nothing short of a joy.
[An] evocative story of community and companionship.