Set in Jamaica and America, How to Love a Jamaican is about Jamaicans who leave and stay, and the issues they face in the modern world. Zadie Smith, NoViolet Bulawayo and Carmen Maria Machado have praised this vibrant, fresh and lyrical debut, and hailed Alexia Arthurs as an exciting new talent.
Alexia Arthurs was born and raised in Jamaica and moved with her family to Brooklyn when she was twelve. A graduate of Hunter College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she has been published in Small Axe and the Paris Review, which awarded her the Plimpton Prize in 2017. How to Love a Jamaican is her debut short story collection. Alexia Arthurs lives in Iowa City.
Alexia Arthurs' How to love a Jamaican is sharp and kind, bitter
and sweet. It stays in the yard, delicately attentive to the ways
of country folks, and it leaves home with them, too, as they head
to 'foreign' - that place across the water where barrels get filled
to be sent back home and people are never quite as happy as they
expected to be. In these kaleidoscopic stories of Jamaica and its
diaspora we hear many voices at once: some cultivated, some simple,
some wickedly funny, some deeply melancholic. All of them convince
and sing. All of them shine. In this thrilling debut collection
Alexia Arthurs is all too easy to love.
*Zadie Smith*
Alexia Arthurs is a writer of beauty, wit, and precision; these
stories will grab you by the heart. This is a boss collection.
*NoViolet Bulawayo, author of We Need New Names*
I am utterly taken with these gorgeous, tender, heartbreaking
stories. Arthurs is a witty, perceptive, and generous writer, and
this is a book that will last
*Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other
Parties*
What a thrill to recognize myself and the women I love in Alexia
Arthurs’ stunning debut story collection, How to Love a Jamaican.
This fantastic young writer conjures the fierce wit of Jamaica
Kincaid and the deft storytelling of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Entrancing and unforgettable.
*Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill*
Alexia Arthurs is a voice so many of us have been waiting for —
funny, achingly specific and wonderfully universal. She explores
what it means to belong, what it means to recognize yourself in the
most unexpected places, and what humans do with the pain of
longing.
*Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie
Freeman*
From a world weary Jamaican pop star in desperate need of the
restorative powers of home to a queer woman returned to the Island
after decades in the US, a host of seekers and sojourners fill the
pages of Alexia Arthurs' sweeping debut. This collection is
brimming with tenderness, hard realities and an intimacy that will
stay with you long after you've turned the last page.
*Ayana Mathis, author of the The Twelve Tribes of
Hattie*
I really enjoyed this gorgeous collection of short stories from
Jamaican-American author Arthurs, which move between Jamaica and
the US. Particularly affecting is "Mash Up Love", where a
successful elder son still strives to impress his mother although
his deadbeat brother is seen as the prodigal son, and "Bad
Behaviour", where a wild Brooklyn teenager is sent back to Jamaica
to live with her grandmother. Zadie Smith is also a fan.
*Bookseller*
While the stories have a rawness to them, exploring topics such as
sexual orientation, parental relationships, self-discovery, and
drug use, Arthurs also offers a sure feel of the mysticism of the
Caribbean . . . Stylistically reminiscent of Toni Morrison’s
Paradise, this successful literary debut will appeal to readers of
literary and Caribbean fiction.
*Library Journal*
Jamaican immigrant and return-migration stories told with
unsentimental honesty. Eleven short stories examine the immigrant
experience through the prism of place, food, gender, and
generations . . . thankfully devoid of violin-swelling nostalgia,
these stories unravel the knot of being in a place but not quite
belonging and the sense of missing but not quite understanding what
was lost . . . [a] strong debut collection, which beckons the
reader back, again and again. A lovely collection of stories that
rewards subsequent readings.
*Kirkus Review*
A must-read this summer
*Elle.com*
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
