Lesley Nneka Arimah

 

 

“Use[s] the short-story format’s mix of intensity and absence to knock you out.” –New Yorker

 

“Subversive, vibrant, and utterly original.” –BuzzFeed

 

“There is something so unique and remarkable about this debut from prize winning Nigerian writer Lesley Nneka Arimah, that in a year of brilliant short story collections, it stands out on its own because of its sheer ingenuity. –BookRiot

“One of the pleasures of reading Lesley Nneka Arimah’s debut collection is the feeling of being thrown off balance: not knowing where this playful and adventurous new talent will take you next…Here is a debut writer showing serious range. –The Guardian

 “A witty, oblique and mischievous storyteller, Arimah can compress a family history into a few pages and invent utopian parables, magical tales and nightmare scenarios while moving deftly between comic distancing and insightful psychological realism. Although this is her first book, her originality and narrative verve have already won her publication in The New Yorker, as well as many awards…it would be wrong not to hail Arimah’s exhilarating originality: She is conducting adventures in narrative on her own terms, keeping her streak of light, that bright ember, burning fiercely, undimmed.” –New York Times Book Review

“This debut short-story collection from Nigerian-American writer Lesley Nneka Arimah sings with effortless energy. Ranging from locales in Nigeria to the United States, from realism to fantasy, these 12 stories showcase the deep range of Arimah’s talent.” –The Root

“What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky is the kind of book I can’t stop talking about. Only three or four stories in, I was already recommending it to anyone who would listen…It is the kind of book I want to thrust into the hands of short-story lovers and short-story skeptics alike, for who could fail to be won over by its imagination, its muscularity, its technical prowess, its exhilarating scope? – The Rumpus

“This much-anticipated debut collection is as marvelous as we all expected it to be—and then some…The stories are evocative each on its own and also as a whole, as tales of mothers weaving children out of hair are spun, and conflicts of love, family, and class clash on the page. The magical realism is so deftly blended into the tales that it’s always easy to suspend one’s disbelief. A truly gorgeous book that looks at humanity in all its angles, from the worst of greed to the best of compassion.” –Read it Forward

 

“Prepare yourself for one of the best collections so far.” –Essence

 

“In a highly anticipated debut, UK-born, Nigeria-raised Lesley Nneka Arimah delivers a string of stunning short stories about generations of women scarred by dislocation, superstition, and war.” –O Magazine

 

“When Lesley Nneka Arimah’s “Who Will Greet You At Home” appeared in The New Yorker in October 2015, its first sentence served not only as an introduction to a mesmerizing short story, but the announcement of an astonishing writer whose words dare the heart and mind to remain unstirred.” –Boston Globe

“Sometimes the hype around a highly anticipated title makes me skeptical. This short story collection by Lesley Nneka Arimah silenced that cranky inner cynic and instead gave me something to celebrate.” –Dallas Morning News

 

“These are stories that burrow their way into your brain and linger there long after you’ve set the book down. It’s a welcome haunting.”–The Culture Trip

“Chilling, dreamy, often breathtaking…Arimah’s stories are witty, poetic and searing, full of flawed-but-lovable characters and images that make you reread passages. The author has a keen sense of fantasy and the absurd, but her work is rooted in experiences and impulses that will seem all too familiar.”–Seattle Times

“Lesley Nneka Arimah’s debut short-story collection, What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky, is an impressive showcase of her talent…Arimah’s voice is vibrant and fresh, her topics equally timely and timeless…This is a slim, rare volume that left me compelled to press it into the hands of friends, saying, “You must read this.” But resist the urge to make your way through its pages at a rapid clip. Each story here benefits from reflection before you tackle the next.” –Washington Post

“Arimah…has a gift for the uncanny, breathing life into metaphors, and finding meaning in both… Most of Arimah’s stories are about women and though the stories in the collection are not linked, what is consistent is Arimah’s gift at rendering textured worlds and inhabitants who hew closely to magical realism while resisting the pitfalls of the genre…It’s hard to stress how well written each of the short stories in this collection are—how striking and memorable they truly are—without resorting to cliches (which I won’t bore you with). Arimah is truly a master of the form and in What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky, she displays that mastery with such compelling self-assuredness and with such creative empathy, that it’s hard to put the collection down until you’ve read and re-read every story.”

 

“Arimah’s extraordinary ability to convey imagined experience, and to give her readers an emotional understanding of her characters’ struggles, has earned her early acclaim in the literary universe.” –Village Voice

 

“[A] remarkable debut collection…Of all of Arimah’s considerable skills, this might be her greatest: She crafts stories that reward rereading, not because they’re unclear or confusing, but because it’s so tempting to revisit each exquisite sentence, each uniquely beautiful description…Arimah [has a] gift for sly humor that doesn’t cheapen the genuine emotions of her characters…Arimah’s collection somehow manages to be both cohesive and varied at the same time. None of the stories resemble one another, exactly, but they manage to form a book united not only by theme and by setting, but by Arimah’s electrifying, defiantly original writing.” –NPR 

 

“A story collection full of dazzlers.” –BBC

“There is no question that Lesley Nneka Arimah’s debut collection establishes her as one to watch..” –Newsweek

“The genius of Lesley Nneka Arimah’s dizzying compilation of beautifully written short stories, What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky, lies in its diversity…the topics are a mixed bag and span different genres – from fable to dystopian to magical realism – but the complex relationship between family and home is the common thread woven throughout. Arimah describes the stories as reflecting the Nigerian experience, and that very well might be the case, but the characters’ feelings of despair, expectation, and, often, disappointment are universally human. It’s a compelling debut from an author we can’t wait to keep reading.” –NYLON

 

“A slender yet mighty short story collection that delivers one head-snapping wallop after another…She flirts with horror fiction, presents a ghost story, and creates an arresting form of magic realism in sync with that of Shirley Jackson, George Saunders, and Colson Whitehead…Arimah’s stories of loss, grief, shame, fury, and love are stingingly fresh and complexly affecting.” –Booklist, STARRED review

“Arimah confidently tests out all the tools in her kit while also managing to create a wholly cohesive and original collection. [This book] heralds a new voice with certain staying power.” –Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review

 

“With her luminous debut collection, What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky, Lesley Nneka Arimah marks her richly deserved place in contemporary fiction. At the center of each impeccably written story, Arimah offers up a new kind of yearning–for love, for peace, for comfort, for home. Never have needful things been so gorgeously displayed.” –Roxane Gay, author of Hunger and Difficult Women