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.
"Strange and wonderful... 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...her science fiction parables, with their
ecological and feminist concerns, recall those of Margaret Atwood.
But 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 "[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...electrifying [and] defiantly original."
-NPR "Stunning." -O, the Oprah Magazine, "A Best Book of
Spring"
"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.'"
-The Washington Post "Arimah writes unsettling tales where science
can save the world, but harm individuals that try to help, where
political unrest and domestic abuse haunt women in circles, and
where family can harm and help. We've been asking for dystopia and
horror stories written by POC, and Arimah has delivered." -BookRiot
"Mesmerizing...the announcement of an astonishing writer whose
words dare the heart and mind to remain unstirred...With its fluid
blend of dark humor, sorrow, and excursions into magic realism,
some of Arimah's stories feel like a jazzy cross between Octavia
Butler and Shirley Jackson. Yet there is nothing derivative here.
Arimah's writing is deliciously unpredictable...Her words throb
with truth." -Boston Globe "Glittering." -The Daily Beast "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 clichés. 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." -Jezebel "Readers of The New
Yorker will recognize Lesley Nneka Arimah's name, as "Who Will
Greet You at Home," one of her pieces, was nominated for a National
Magazine Award. Now, in her first book of short stories, the
talented author will deservedly reach a wider audience. Prepare
yourself for one of the best collections so far." -Essence
"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." -The Seattle
Times
"Arimah blends magical realism and sci-fi elements for a truly
unique set of stories about family, friendship, and home that will
leave you hungry for more of her work." -Cosmopolitan "Beautifully
written stories...[that] speak to what makes us human and how we
define home, and coalesce into a remarkable collection." -Buzzfeed
"A writer to watch...No matter how left-of-center her narratives,
there's a recognizable humanity at their core -- a sense of
something universal, told in unsentimental language...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 spirit of willful perseverance suffuses Arimah's
collection...Above all, her writing conveys respect for the people
who claw their way through relentlessly difficult lives...These
tales don't celebrate virtue, but they pay tribute to tenacity."
-The Atlantic "These stories explore all manner of parental care,
paying special attention to the arcane expectations of femininity
and motherhood from the U.S. to Nigeria, along with the
relationship between mother and daughter." -The New Yorker
"Everyone in the book world is talking about this collection of
short stories by debut author Lesley Nneka Arimah, and it's not
hard to see why. Including stories about a father struggling to
empower his daughters, three generations of women who are haunted
by memories of war, and the shocking repercussions from experts
trying to "fix the equation of a person," this is the type of book
you're going to want to tweet about a lot. We guarantee it." -Brit
+ Co "The genius of Lesley Nneka Arimah's dizzying compilation of
beautifully written short stories...lies in its diversity...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...A compelling debut from an
author we can't wait to keep reading." -NYLON
"An exciting new voice in short fiction. Start with the titular
story, and you'll be dropped into a beautifully crafted world that
is both familiar and strange, a future in which emotions can be
extracted by careful mathematics." -Southern Living "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
News "The characters in Arimah's haunting, twisted fairy tales are
simultaneously held aloft and sunk by the force of familial trauma,
often passed down from parent to child, and informed by structural
violence: poverty, racism, gender stereotypes, nationalism...The
magic of Arimah's writing is her ability to capture how a
character's swooping desperation can give them the sensation of
flying." -Village Voice "Each time I finished a story in Lesley
Nneka Arimah's debut collection, I had to close the book and remind
myself to breathe. She cast that spell on me twelve times over,
each story breaking the boundary of the one that came before it...
If you want to know what's happening on the new frontiers of
fiction, this is the book you need to read." -Ploughshares
"Beautiful gut punches....surprising, swift and vivid...Arimah
moves from folk tale to gritty realism, from magical realism to
science fiction. The result is an inventive and multifaceted
portrait of womanhood and identity...Essential reading from an
exciting new writer." -St. Louis Post-Dispatch "[Arimah] weaves
indelible stories of geographical displacement, cultural diversity
and conflict. Altogether the collection teems with both dry humor
and profound melancholy, each narrative is just as consuming as the
last." -Harper's Bazaar
"Arimah is a skillful storyteller who can render entire
relationships with just a few lines of dialogue...Despite its
themes of grief and loss, [her] prose is not without humor."
-Minneapolis Star-Tribune "Unforgettable characters, unexpected
plot lines...and Arimah's vibrant prose have placed her firmly on
our "remember this writer's name" list." -PureWow "All of [the
stories] are wrought in gorgeous prose, moving easily between
intimate domestic realism and the supernatural and
fantastic...[Lesley has a] bracingly original voice and slightly
askew perspective." -Aspen Times "A story collection full of
dazzlers." -BBC "There are stories that are grand enough to be
published in The New Yorker and then every year there are a few
stories that The New Yorker then nominates for National Magazine
Awards. Debut author Lesley Nneka Arimah writes those kinds of
stories, and her new collection is teeming with wondrous, surreal
narratives." -Coast Magazine
"There is no question that Lesley Nneka Arimah's debut collection
establishes her as one to watch: and boy, I can't wait to see what
she does next." -Newsweek
"Brilliant...Each of the stories will pull at your heartstrings as
they portray the most complicated of human relationships." -Redbook
"In our current political climate with its rampant animosity
towards immigrants, Arimah offers a humanizing portrait of both the
Nigerian citizen and first generation young female immigrant. She
showcases their flaws, their desires, their victories, and their
attempts at carving out a place in a country whose customs and
values diverge from that of their heritage." -The Rumpus
"Completely captivating...Arimah explores the depth of the human
experience through eccentric protagonists, unexpected plots, and
exceptional storytelling. It's a global perspective of what
Blackness looks like and how the experience of Black women is
inherently alike, whether you're in Nigeria or Chicago." -Ebony
"Inventive and wildly playful." -The Boston Globe
"Revelatory...Arimah's works, which include speculative fiction and
African mythology, demonstrate her gift for telling detail and odd
twists...This astonishing collection is an impressive debut."
-Shelf Awareness "Arimah's stories bring a perspective more and
more common in a global society: that of a nomad uncertain where
home is." -Thrillist "Seamlessly blends magical realism and a kind
of sci-fi, resulting in a one-of-a-kind...Brilliant." -The Millions
"[Arimah] turned some folks' worlds upside down...I can't wait to
devour this." -Black Nerd Problems
"Sharp and surprising, fantastic and dark, human and
heartbreaking...a must-add to your short fiction list ...I loved
every minute of reading this book." -Julie Wernersbach, Director of
the Texas Book Festival "[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) "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. 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...stingingly
fresh and complexly affecting." -Booklist (starred)
"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) "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.
Against a backdrop of grief for dead parents or angst over a lover,
Arimah uses Nigeria as her muse...join[ing] everything from
fabulism to folk tale...while also managing to create a wholly
cohesive and original collection. Heralds a new voice with certain
staying power." -Kirkus (starred) "With her luminous debut
collection, 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 Bad Feminist and Difficult Women
"How does she make these stories so distilled and spacious at the
same time? They are drained of excess but still expand so
fearlessly. A remarkable debut, from a writer I'm sure we'll be
reading for years to come."
-Aimee Bender, author of The Color Master and The Particular
Sadness of Lemon Cake "A striking collection that will make the
hair on the back of your neck stand at attention and your heart
gasp in admiration. Arimah's stories are intense, mesmeric, and
nothing short of stunning."
-Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn and Gold Fame Citrus
"Without question, one of the finest story collections I've read in
years. Arimah excels at capturing the kinetic ache of dislocation,
of dwelling in the mysterious territory that divides places and
selves and generations. Wondrous."
-Laura van den Berg, author of Find Me and The Isle of Youth
"In these gorgeous stories, Arimah dreams a world. These tales cut
like razors, charm like poetry, and heal like love. International
in scope, but deeply personal, What It Means When A Man Falls From
The Sky marks the arrival of a stunning new voice."
-Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow
"What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky is an exciting and
audacious collection. At turns otherworldly and heartbreakingly
familiar, these stories represent all that we could ever want from
short fiction. The humor is wicked and the heart big, beautiful,
and full of want."
-Diane Cook, author of Man V. Nature "Lesley Nneka Arimah's debut
will be making a hell of a lot of noise. Writing this good just
can't stay quiet. What It Means When a Man Fall from the Sky is
your introduction to one of the best and brightest new writers
around."
-Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine and The Changeling
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