Big Man

By Dean Atta

Published September 2026

9781917008259 / Paperback / £12.99

A tender and daring novel about queer love, trauma, and aging, and the adult debut from award-winning YA author Dean Atta.

BIG MAN follows the life of Big, a middle-aged, Black British gay man who lives a gentle life with his boyfriend, Little, in their home in East London. Big and Little enjoy evenings out and group holidays with friends, as much as practising yoga together at home, and running side by side along the Hackney canals.

Big came of age in the club scene under the watchful eye of Mother, an African American trans woman who made a home and a name for herself in London, her house a refuge for wayward queer youth like Big. When he finds out Mother is releasing a memoir, the two reconnect after decades of distance, and Big finds himself having to confront a long-repressed assault that opens old – and new – wounds.

A tender, daring novel full of gentle humour, BIG MAN explores themes of identity, aging, sex, family, and trauma, turning a lens on what it means to age as a queer person, while being a double-edged love letter to the people and places that make us.

Dean Atta is a multi-award-winning author, poet, and BAFTA-winning and BIFA-nominated filmmaker. His books include the young adult novel The Black Flamingo (winner of the Stonewall Book Award), the memoir Person Unlimited: An Ode to My Black Queer Body, and poetry collections I Am Nobody’s Nigger and There is (still) love here. His poetry has featured on the BBC, BET, Channel 4, and MTV. Big Man is his adult literary debut.