Sayon has such complexities, someone we feel we can touch, with internal conflicts and a sense of duality, it’s easy to find something to relate to in him, as well as root for him as we continue through the novel. Have you written about Sayon before in previous works?

An Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie review - The Guardian

And I would not be surprised to see it appear on literary prize lists over the next 12 months or so – as it clearly introduces a fresh and distinctive new voice to the UK literary scene from a very young author (the auction for this book – and a follow up around the St Paul riots – took place in 2020 when the author was a 22 year old recent English graduate). In this novel, my favorite character is Nanny. Nanny is authentic and raw. Nanny is not ratting her drug-dealing grandbaby out to the police. She’s gonna cook you a big breakfast even after you’ve made her upset. Nanny loves you unconditionally. The water that ran from pond to pond had no foul smell. It was lazy, like a river of clarified honey. I thought if I knelt to taste it I might have refreshed myself after such a disappointing day, but Cuba had other ideas. He pointed towards the house. ‘Yo, you wanna see what’s inside?’ Incredible. The story is completely gripping and expertly paced, the characterisation is rounded and complex, especially the different relationships between characters. I'm in awe of how fully the nuances of the relationships come through in such small details that speak large. And the language - oh my - what an impressive range of registers Moses hits with such beauty in the lyrical bits, such music in the dialogue, and such efficiency throughout. Zero fluff. -- Melissa Fu, author of PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING And among a tale of a 11-year-old (going on about 21 at least compared to my schooldays) gangster in the making (while also intelligent) Sayon recounting tales of his various schemes and fights what are we to make of the insertion of this sudden passage of exposition

So, I started writing prose in 2017. Before that I’d write song lyrics, and I wrote three manuscripts before I wrote An Olive Grove in Ends. Yes, three manuscripts and then a screenplay. And they were all of varying quality; the premises had varying ideas, some of them good, some of them bad. And then some of them were poorly executed. All of them were poorly executed! But yeah, then I wrote An Olive Grove in Ends in 2019. An Olive Grove in Ends is published in the UK under the Wildfire imprint of Headline Publishing and in the US by Little, Brown. It was listed as a Guardian Novel of the Year 2022, shortlisted for The Writers’ Guild Best First Novel Award 2023 and, in an influential US review, has been called ‘the most exciting UK debut in years’. Cuba put his arms across his little chest and huffed in the manner of a man about to embark upon yet another noble quest. ‘Say no more, g, but if you’re gonna buy it den man’ll help you, init. Dat’s what family’s for.’ His family was the only one older than mine in the city. We knew each other well and demonstrated our respect through patronage. I gave him an extra tenner each visit and dropped a couple of pounds in the charity box I knew he took a cut from. My cousin Bunny spotted me from across the street and touched his hand to his heart, then to the sky. I returned his salute and we kept it pushing.

An Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie | Waterstones An Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie | Waterstones

The attending officers who were standing beside the tape scanned the crowds, looking for admissions of guilt in the dark faces of passing strangers, but I made it impossible for them, or anyone else watching, to read my trepidation. As ever, there was bop in my stride and a bounce to my gait, but my mind was split, contorted in a million directions, few of them fruitful. I’d worked hard these past years, and my boyhood dream was well within sight. If all went to plan, I would be able to offer the homeowners eighty per cent of the house’s last valuation. Eighty per cent. Cash. By the end of the year. And with the promise of more to come – surely they couldn’t refuse that? But it was just that which bothered me: if all went to plan. Because it was only June, and Cordell’s death had me scrambling.I enjoyed the questions and contradictions the novel presented. Sayon felt like a real person making decisions that were a mix of both good and not so good, just like any real person would. The supporting cast felt just as real. The arguments Sayon had with himself and others are the crux of the novel and they felt like situations that many people have faced not just those in the Ends in Bristol. Growing up, Sayon found respite from the chaos of his environment in the love and loyalty of his brother-in-arms, Cuba; in the example of his cousin Hakim, a man once known as the most infamous drug-dealer in their neighbourhood, now a proselytising Muslim; and in the tenderness of his girl, Shona, whose own sense of purpose galvanises Sayon’s.