Behind every piece of neighbourhood gossip is a person with a story that outsiders may never fully understand. In ‘The Gully Side Book Series,’ TanYah Global, writing as TanYah Global, looks beyond appearances to explore the relationships, pressures, secrets, and ambitions shaping an interconnected Jamaican community.
When Private Lives Become Community Business
Life in Gully Side is intensely social. Neighbours observe one another, families share limited spaces, rumours move rapidly, and personal choices have a way of becoming everybody’s concern. Across ten contemporary Jamaican novels, TanYah Global uses this environment to examine how individuals respond to love, poverty, relationships, religion, political influence, money, migration, abuse, betrayal, and the everyday demands of survival.
There’s plenty of humour within this world as well. Jamaican communities have long turned difficult experiences into stories, jokes, songs, and lively conversations, and that cultural spirit has a meaningful presence throughout the series. Topics heard in dancehall and reggae or explored by comedians become starting points for deeper character-driven narratives. TanYah Global gives readers opportunities to understand the circumstances surrounding the behaviour that communities may celebrate, criticise, misunderstand, or discuss endlessly.
The interconnected format makes that exploration especially interesting. Every book tells a self-contained story, so readers can follow its central characters without depending entirely on previous instalments. At the same time, people and experiences cross paths throughout the wider series. Seeing the community from multiple perspectives gradually creates a fuller picture of Gully Side, where one person’s private struggle may already be part of someone else’s conversation.
Part One Introduces Five Very Different Perspectives
‘Gully Side: A Big Yard, A So It Guh?’ begins with a family entering Big Yard and hoping to preserve some privacy. They soon discover that community membership comes with expectations and unwritten rules. Neighbours watch what happens around them, information travels easily, and everyday interactions reveal the complicated relationship between individual privacy and communal belonging. The story brings family, gossip, survival, and social boundaries together within a distinctly Jamaican setting.
The second novel, ‘One Don: Mi Nuh Business,’ follows Damion as his life develops from boyhood into one of considerable community influence. Becoming a Don brings authority and access to political connections, while people increasingly look toward him for support. Money, loyalty, responsibility, and difficult choices shape his journey. Through Damion, the series examines how power develops within communities and how that influence can affect both the person holding it and those living around him.
‘Hot Wuk: Who Feel It Knows It’ places Poochie under the spotlight. People have opinions about her, though those opinions rarely capture everything she’s experienced. Motherhood, relationships, ambition, judgment, and personal sacrifice influence the decisions she makes as she tries to protect her loved ones and create greater possibilities for herself. Her story explores the distance between a public reputation and the private experiences that help create it.
Faith becomes a major concern in ‘Bun Gad: Whose God?’ Pastor, Mama Daris, and Rasta bring different beliefs and perspectives into a community already dealing with difficult realities. When secrets surface, questions surrounding morality, hypocrisy, responsibility, vulnerability, and trust become increasingly important. The setting then shifts to Brooklyn in ‘Farrin Life, Farrin Lies: Tek Time,’ a story exploring employment, finances, relationships, cultural identity, and the pressures Jamaican immigrants may experience while trying to establish themselves abroad.
These five November 2026 releases represent only half of the planned journey. Part Two, coming in February 2027, continues with ‘SQUADY,’ ‘Jerry the Hyper G,’ ‘Night Nurse,’ ‘Rum Bar,’ and ‘Last Stop.’ Their individual story details are still to be announced, with each book set to add another perspective to the growing fictional community.
Readers can order Part One directly from the series’ own website. The advertised price for one book is $30 plus $4 shipping, while three different books cost $75 plus $9 shipping. Readers interested in experiencing the complete opening collection can purchase all five Part One books for $120 plus $13 shipping.
About the Author
As an author, educator, and youth development specialist from Jamaica, TanYah Global brings nearly three decades of work with young people, families, and communities to her fiction. She grew up familiar with many of the social realities reflected in her fiction, giving her a close understanding of community relationships, hardship, humour, aspirations, and resilience. Her storytelling frequently examines the human experiences that exist beneath labels and public perceptions.
Under the name TanYah Global, she works across contemporary fiction, psychological thrillers, supernatural young adult stories, children’s and youth literature, and socially conscious writing. Other titles from her include ‘The Collective Series,’ ‘The Eternal Series,’ ‘The Beyond Slavery Children and Youth Series,’ and ‘Boys Struggling to Become Men: Trafficked in Silence.’
Stories That Travel Beyond the Yard
Gully Side may be unmistakably Jamaican, yet its emotional territory reaches much further. Through neighbours, families, believers, migrants, survivors, and ambitious personalities, TanYah Global creates a community where readers can recognise the timeless desire for dignity, security, love, acceptance, and a place to belong.
We had the privilege of interviewing TanYah Global. Here are excerpts from the interview:
TanYah Global, could you tell our readers a little about yourself?
I’m a Jamaican author, educator, and youth development specialist, and I write as TanYah Global. I have nearly thirty years of experience working with young people, families, and communities.
What inspired you to create the Gully Side Book Series?
My professional experience and personal familiarity with Jamaican community life provide a foundation for the Gully Side Book Series. Having grown up around the realities portrayed in my fiction, I bring an understanding of the relationships, social pressures, humour, struggles, ambitions, and resilience that shape everyday life.
How would you describe your storytelling in Gully Side?
My storytelling looks beyond labels and stereotypes to examine the human beings behind them: their vulnerabilities, desires, choices, contradictions, and capacity for survival. Through Gully Side, I give literary expression to subjects often discussed through Jamaican music, comedy, gossip, and popular culture, while inviting readers to look more deeply at the circumstances behind the entertainment. My writing blends social observation, cultural authenticity, emotional complexity, humour, and provocative storytelling.
Will readers outside Jamaica connect with the series?
Although the series is distinctly Jamaican in language, atmosphere, and cultural identity, it explores universal human experiences that readers across the Caribbean diaspora and international audiences can recognise. You don’t have to be Jamaican to recognise somebody in the yard.
Thank you so much, TanYah Global, for giving us your precious time! We wish you all the best for your journey ahead!
