Overview:
Title: Big Man
Author: Dean Atta
Published: September 2026
Genre: Literary
Themes: Identity
One sentence summary: The past never stays put and old connections bring up trauma that Big was quite happy leaving hidden.
One sentence review: An utter delight, Atta has done it again.
Review:
Atta’s first adult novel was an utter delight to read. I’ve loved his work for many years and he’s an easy auto-buy author for me, whatever genre or age group he’s writing for.
Big Man follows Big, a Black British gay man, who’s settled into life with partner Little. They have a quiet life now and they’ve lived many before that. But the past never stays put and old connections bring up trauma that was once boxed and hidden away.
Atta is one of those authors that writes people and all their quirks and messiness so brilliantly and it’s a pleasure to read, despite the dark content. There’s times Big is talking about his road out of survival mode that are so delicately and sensitively crafted and it’s a real testament to his writing. Big goes on quite the personal journey and it really felt like you were being let into their life.
There’s also a crudeness or starkness of the reality of life and living with long term partners amongst others that was brilliantly refreshing. I think it’s quite a skill to talk about the mundane things in life in such a way that as a reader that you want to know it all. It’s something that still makes me smile thinking back about it.
I really hope we see more adult novels from Atta in the future. Is this one you have on your radar?
If you’d like to get yourself a copy, you can support local bookshops and my work while doing so on Bookshop.org with this link here and on libro.fm here.
If you like what you’ve read and would like to access more content, we have a cosy reading community over on patreon . If you love a bookish giveaway and learning about all the new releases, we’d love to have you with us. It’s perfect for those looking for community and connection in the online space. You can also find more content on my Instagram here.
And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.
Last updated 14/10/2026
Leave a Reply