Stories From the Tenants Downstairs

Bold, funny and gloriously flawed voices of New York … a bravura debut * Observer *Absolutely brilliant … tender and tough * Daily Mail *Outstanding … [Fofana] masterfully paints a portrait of the people most impacted by gentrification * New York Times Book Review *

Ambitiously voiced and inventively structured … The sentences are infused with energy and dark humour, heralding an impressive debut voice and a skilful, pleasing collection

* Sunday Business Post *Fofana makes us feel viscerally the weight of life’s injustice. He doesn’t idealize or airbrush his characters, yet he enables us to know their wit, ingenuity, joy, and resilience * Harpers *His characters exude life and the different voices stay with the reader long after the book has been shelved * Boston Globe *Heralds an indelible, inimitable new literary voice … full of humanity and humor and hope, full of insight into the plight of people too often pushed to the margins of America-the-dream … not only a great joy to read, it’s evocative, essential art * Mitchell S. Jackson, author of Survival Math and The Residue Years *Full of tenderness and truth … The voices of the residents of Banneker Terrace linger and echo long after the last page. A tremendous debut! * Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies *Every once in a while a new writer comes along and refreshes our notions of what fiction can do. Sidik Fofana is one of those rare and wonderful writers … nothing short of revelatory. Buy this book, and prepare to be blasted by the brilliance inside * Ben Fountain, author of Beautiful Country Burn Again *The book I’ve been waiting for … The author knows this community and its predicaments and has assembled a cast that will break your heart but also at times put your heart back together again. Mr. Fofana has an acute ear and a perfect eye, and he doesn’t rush. This is important American art * Lorrie Moore, author of Bark *A huge canvas of life where every detail has been lovingly rendered. Immersive, artful and moving. A wondrous debut * Oisín Fagan, author of Nobber *Stories which are often as funny as they are poignant … It’s an impressive collection, so confident and assured it’s hard to credit that it’s Fofana’s first * A Life in Books *It impressed not only for its ingenuity, but its tenderness and compassion * Irish Times, Books of the Year *