From Powells.com
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Synopses & Reviews
A PBS NewsHour/New York Times Book Club Pick
A NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION "5 UNDER 35" HONOREE
WINNER OF THE 2017 KIRKUS PRIZE
WINNER OF THE NYPL'S YOUNG LIONS FICTION AWARD
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE LEONARD PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE
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.
Review
"Arimah has skill in abundance: the stories here are solid and impeccably crafted and strike at the heart of the most complicated of human relationships….Heralds a new voice with certain staying power." Kirkus (Starred Review)
Review
"A powerful and incisive debut…Arimah gracefully inserts moments of levity into each tale and creates complex characters who are easy to both admire and despise…this collection electrifies." Publisher's Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
"A slender yet mighty short story collection that delivers one head-snapping wallop after another...Arimah's emotional and cultural precision and authenticity undergird her most imaginative leaps...stingingly fresh and complexly affecting." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"[Arimah's] stories reflect international breadth but also capture an expat's sense of alienation...several pieces in this powerful debut collection already have garnered awards, and each story, tightly crafted and unique, will etch into your memory. Highly recommended." Library Journal (Starred Review)
About the Author
Lesley Nneka Arimah was born in the UK and grew up in Nigeria and the United States. Her work has received grants and awards from Commonwealth Writers, the Elizabeth George Foundation, The MacDowell Colony, Breadloaf and others. She was selected for the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 and is the recipient of an O'Henry Award. Her debut collection, What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky, won the Kirkus Prize and the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and was a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Leonard Prize . She currently lives in Minneapolis.