• What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky

  • Stories
  • By: Lesley Nneka Arimah
  • Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
  • Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (314 ratings)

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What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky  By  cover art

What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky

By: Lesley Nneka Arimah
Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
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Publisher's summary

A National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Honoree
Winner of the 2017 Kirkus Prize
Winner of The NYPL's Young Lions Fiction Award
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Leonard Prize
Shortlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize

A dazzlingly accomplished debut collection explores the ties that bind parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends to one another and to the places they call home.

In “Who Will Greet You at Home”, a National Magazine Award finalist for The New Yorker, a woman desperate for a child weaves one out of hair, with unsettling results. In “Wild”, a disastrous night out shifts a teenager and her Nigerian cousin onto uneasy common ground. In "The Future Looks Good", three generations of women are haunted by the ghosts of war, while in "Light", a father struggles to protect and empower the daughter he loves. And in the title story, in a world ravaged by flood and riven by class, experts have discovered how to "fix the equation of a person" - with rippling, unforeseen repercussions.

Evocative, playful, subversive, and incredibly human, What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky heralds the arrival of a prodigious talent with a remarkable career ahead of her.

©2017 Lesley Nneka Arimah (P)2017 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“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)

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What listeners say about What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky

Average customer ratings
Overall
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • JC
  • 07-02-18

Hard to follow as an audiobook

I think that this would be much easier to follow along with if it weren’t an audio book. There isn’t much delineation between chapters/stories. I’d like to read it as an actual book because the start and end of chapters would be more clear.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Very entertaining.

kept me entertained for miles and miles. The stories were wonderful. The narration was also wonderful.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Perfect performance, irritating organization

The stories and performance are perfection. What makes this audiobook irritating beyond belief is that the short stories are not separated into singular chapters, but rather run together as a singular narrative. I cannot bounce around easily to find my favorite tales from this collection.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Intense

Well written and really well read. For me the reoccurring theme of everyday villians and their victims who don't learn, some of which go on to become villians themselves, was a little trying by the end. On the other hand the mixing in of fantastical elements makes the stores feel unique and just a degree from our world in a very cool way

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding Collection

Lesley Nneka Arimah crafts universes for her characters, and therefore for us. Her stories are like tapestries that envelope and warm you. I can't recommend this book enough. Interested folks should consider checking out Levar Burton's interview with her (as well as his read of her title story, What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky) on his podcast Levar Burton Reads. In their interview, Lesley discusses her love for writing stories about strong female characters who exhibit tendencies and flaws that they must battle with and through. This book is a fabulous collection of such characters. 5 stars x 3

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating Collection

Great collection of stories, although with the Audible version, it is difficult to recognize that at the beginning of the book, it is not the same characters. The narrator does not do a good job with Igbo names or a Texas accent, which does not sound anything like accents from the South. Still, I highly recommend it.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Audiobook ruins it, read actual book instead

Skip the audiobook for this one. Twelve short stories divided among 26 audiobook chapters that run together. "War Stories," "Windfalls," "Glory," and "Redemption" start in the middle of a chapter with no pause or noticeable introduction.
With the same narrator alternating between the same Nigerian and American accents for each story I kept having to rewind and pause to figure out if the story had ended, if it was the same story, what had happened. Too confusing, I couldn't make it halfway through, which is too bad because the few stories I could differentiate were really good. They were entertaining, but a bit dark.
I plan to read the book instead, where I can devote my attention to each story individually.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Creative Stories

This book is filled with creative and meaningful stories which are well written. But they aren't happy stories, which is why I tired of the book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

mind blowing stories

What made the experience of listening to What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky the most enjoyable?

This stories bring me to places I've not been before--They explore r the lives of people of all kinds of backgrounds, Economic situations, countries , as well as super mathematicians in a dystopian future . Graceful, insightful , wonderful exploration of conflict and love

What did you like best about this story?

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If you could take any character from What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky out to dinner, who would it be and why?

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This woman can write!

The book is a slow burn, but the stories suck you in! One story sticks out to me as not safe for listening to at night or before bed because it is just plain creepy. I’ll let you be the judge. Overall, this is a great collection!

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1 person found this helpful