What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky

Arima's stunning collection of short stories is well rooted in Nigerian culture, both diasporic and native. So it's just as well that narrator Adjoa Andoh has an eclectic palette of accents to draw from as she moves effortlessly across the globe from story to story. Andoh brings a certain coarseness, in particular, to her often ferocious portrayals of motherhood--a coarseness that proves valuable in a collection of stories dominated by Nigerian mothers no listener would disobey in a hurry. Arima shifts from mythological to modern romance in a heartbeat, offering Andoh the opportunity to showcase her dramatic versatility with only the rarest of missteps in an otherwise exemplary readings. These stories are phenomenal and, in combination with Andoh's reading, are not to be missed. Z.S. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

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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