"A dazzlingly accomplished debut collection explores the ties that bind parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends to one another and to the places they call home. In "Who Will Greet You at Home," a National Magazine Award finalist for The New Yorker, A woman desperate for a child weaves one out of hair, with unsettling results. In "Wild," a disastrous night out shifts a teenager and her Nigerian cousin onto uneasy common ground. In "The Future Looks Good," three generations of women are haunted by the ghosts of war, while in "Light," a father struggles to protect and empower the daughter he loves. And in the title story, in a world ravaged by flood and riven by class, experts have discovered how to "fix the equation of a person" - with rippling, unforeseen repercussions. Evocative, playful, subversive, and incredibly human, What It Means When a Man Falls …
"A dazzlingly accomplished debut collection explores the ties that bind parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends to one another and to the places they call home. In "Who Will Greet You at Home," a National Magazine Award finalist for The New Yorker, A woman desperate for a child weaves one out of hair, with unsettling results. In "Wild," a disastrous night out shifts a teenager and her Nigerian cousin onto uneasy common ground. In "The Future Looks Good," three generations of women are haunted by the ghosts of war, while in "Light," a father struggles to protect and empower the daughter he loves. And in the title story, in a world ravaged by flood and riven by class, experts have discovered how to "fix the equation of a person" - with rippling, unforeseen repercussions. Evocative, playful, subversive, and incredibly human, What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky heralds the arrival of a prodigious talent with a remarkable career ahead of her"--
A joy to read , even when the stories themselves deal with difficult topics, because of the effortless flow of the narrative in each short tale. As a collection, it gives a kind of kaleidoscopic view of Nigéria: past, present, and future; from hard nosed reality to speculative magical realism; from the homeland to the diaspora. Absolutely loved it and can’t wait to read more from the author.
These stories are intensely, wildly imaginative and original. I never knew where they were headed or what would turn up. Every single story in the collection is memorable and stood out from the others in its own way. This is a must-read for fans of short stories and fabulism.
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories from Lesley Nneka Arimah. I first listened to the title story, "What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky," on LeVar Burton Reads, and I knew I had to read the rest of them. When the book came out in paperback, I picked it up and dove in. And wow. One heads up: the compilation is not exactly a feel good. However, the stories feel amazingly real and certainly pack a punch. Even if some of the stories could not literally take place today (for example, the title story takes place at some indefinite time in the future), the world constructed is one that we know, or that we could very easily know if things were a little different or if they continue as they are. The characters are very well fleshed-out, and I found myself wanting to know …
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories from Lesley Nneka Arimah. I first listened to the title story, "What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky," on LeVar Burton Reads, and I knew I had to read the rest of them. When the book came out in paperback, I picked it up and dove in. And wow. One heads up: the compilation is not exactly a feel good. However, the stories feel amazingly real and certainly pack a punch. Even if some of the stories could not literally take place today (for example, the title story takes place at some indefinite time in the future), the world constructed is one that we know, or that we could very easily know if things were a little different or if they continue as they are. The characters are very well fleshed-out, and I found myself wanting to know more of their stories after we parted ways. Arimah deftly gives us just enough information to guess at a character's past and their motivations, without making it obvious what will occur, and just enough to give us a good guess of their future. It's masterfully done, and I can't wait to read more from her.
