November 15, 2017
Arimah's debut collection comprises a dozen surprising, affecting stories. Narrator Adjoa Andoh sublimely intensifies the author's already breathtaking prose into an irresistible, spectacular performance, as she effortlessly modulates her distinctive voice, picking up genders and generations, cadences and accents, and just as easily discards such details for the next scene, the next story. Andoh is both innocent and knowing in "Wild," about two teenage cousins--one American, the other Nigerian--forced to spend a summer together. She grows determined in "Light," about a family splintered by opportunity and distance. She growls through "Who Will Greet You at Home," about motherless women making phantom babies. She navigates both desperation and entitlement in "What Is a Volcano" between feuding, less-than-equal gods. Resignation drives "Windfalls," about an untethered mother and daughter trying to survive. Detachment goes awry in the titular story as a mathematician attempts to alchemize humanity into numbers. VERDICT Libraries with patrons especially partial to magnificent, international discoveries will want to provide Sky in multiple formats. ["Each story, tightly crafted and unique, will etch into your memory": LJ 5/1/17 starred review of the Riverhead hc.]--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC
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Starred review from February 27, 2017
In her powerful and incisive debut collection, Arimah shuttles between continents and realities to deliver 12 stories of loss, hope, violence, and family relationships. In “Wild,” a reckless teenage girl is sent from America to her aunt in Nigeria, only to get caught up in the life of her equally reckless cousin. “Second Chances” sees a deceased mother magically reappear in her family’s life, with mixed results, and “Buchi’s Girls” is about a widow struggling to raise two daughters while living in her sister’s house. Mother and daughter grifters deal with an unexpected pregnancy in “Windfalls,” while the collection’s futuristic title story explores a world in which mathematicians have unlocked the secrets to all humanity, allowing humans to remove emotional pain from others and disrupt the laws of nature. Arimah gracefully inserts moments of levity into each tale and creates complex characters who are easy to both admire and despise. From the chilling opening story, “The Future Looks Good,” structured like a Russian nesting doll, to the closing story, “Redemption,” this collection electrifies.