Tinder Press signs deal with award-winning African writer Arimah

Tinder Press has acquired a story collection and debut novel from Lesley Nneka Arimah, winner of the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa.

Tinder Press publisher, Mary-Anne Harrington, acquired British Commonwealth rights from Vivien Green at Sheil Land, acting on behalf of Samantha Shea at Georges Borchardt Inc to both works.

Moving between Nigeria and the United States, where Arimah now lives, What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky explores the ties that bind mothers and daughters and men and women to one another, and to the places they call home. A daughter is haunted by the ghost of a war, a childless woman fashions a sinister infant from human hair, and in a post-apocalyptic world riven by race and class, a formula has been discovered that allows experts to "fix" grief, but at a "terrible price".

Harrington said: "Lesley Arimah’s stories unfold in a tough world which reminded me more than a little of Elena Ferrante’s Naples, but these are stories as singular as they are varied, shot through with a strand of magic that is as unpredictable as it is thrilling. What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky showcases the work of an extraordinary talent, and at Tinder Press we couldn’t be more excited to be launching Lesley’s career in the UK."

Tinder Press will publish What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky in May 2017.