About the Author

Lesley Nneka Arimah was born in the UK and grew up wherever her father was stationed for work, which was sometimes Nigeria, sometimes not. She has been published in The New Yorker and Granta, her story 'Light' was winner of the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa, and she has twice been shortlisted for the Caine Prize (2016 and 2017) with stories from WHAT IT MEANS WHEN A MAN FALLS FROM THE SKY.

Reviews

At the centre 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 displayedThe hilarious and the heartbreaking stand shoulder to shoulder in WHAT IT MEANS WHEN A MAN FALLS FROM THE SKY... Lesley Nneka Arimah describes the darkest corners of the human heart with such flourish that each story is a delightArimah's magic realism owes something to Ben Okri... her science fiction parables recall those of Margaret Atwood... 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 ReviewWhat It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky is 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 stunningHow 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.