'A deeply observant, perceptive writer' Joanna Cannon 'A remarkable debut; quietly devastating and beautifully wrought' Jendella Benson 'Warm, engrossing, deeply moving. I loved these characters' Holly Brickley 'Expansive, surprising, delightful, vulnerable and always real' Olumide Popoola 'Brilliant…I read it in one enthralled sitting' Peter Scalpello ‘Love was a tightrope between freedom and control. He didn’t know how others seemed to walk it with ease’ This is the challenge Elom and his family face in the years before his unexpected death. Caught between his well-meaning yet misapprehending family, his boisterous friends, and his self-assured partner Ben, Elom struggles to fit in. All he ever wants is to feel understood – but what does it mean to live authentically when the only thing changing faster than the world around you is the world within? Moving between Accra, Glasgow and London, Selali Fiamanya’s extraordinary debut asks what it means to love and be loved in return. Before We Hit the Ground is an intimate portrait of a family, and one man’s struggle to find his place.