For our April read, the Zeda Book Club explored When a Man Falls from the Sky, a dazzling and daring short story collection by Nigerian author Lesley Nneka Arimah. Blending speculative fiction, emotional realism, and sharp social commentary, Arimah crafts stories that are unflinchingly honest, often surreal, and always deeply human. For our café hop, we met at Café Amka at Lonrho House in the Nairobi CBD.
Each story stands on its own, yet together they form a textured, haunting portrait of contemporary womanhood, displacement, and desire. One thread that struck a powerful chord with our members was the recurring motif of complicated mother-daughter relationships, fragile, fraught, and formative.
From the very first story, “The Future Looks Good,” we’re ushered into the tense world of generational silence and emotional inheritance. Arimah draws the lines between women, mothers and daughters, sisters, aunties, through small gestures, withheld affection, and the weight of expectation. The tension is palpable, even when unspoken. Again and again, mothers try to shape their daughters into something safer, more obedient, more desirable, often failing to see the daughters in front of them. And daughters, in turn, carry this weight, longing for love, sometimes resenting it, often trying to escape it.
One of the most powerful examples is “Who Will Greet You at Home,” where women craft babies from inanimate materials, cloth, yarn, hair, and the kind of child you’re allowed to create speaks volumes about your status and societal worth. The protagonist’s relationship with her mother is one of disapproval and distance; even in this fantastical world, the emotional truths are raw and real. What happens when a mother’s love feels like control? When your choices, how you live, who you love, how you mother, are never enough?
In “Light,” a more grounded and tender piece, Arimah gives us a father raising a daughter while her mother is abroad. It’s a rare moment of softness in a book that doesn’t shy away from the hard edges of life. And yet, the mother’s absence, and later, her reentry, brings complexity and conflict, underscoring the idea that even love, when shaped by duty and distance, can become distorted.
The title story, When a Man Falls from the Sky, ventures into speculative fiction, imagining a world where mathematical formulas can erase grief. Yet even here, grief is never truly quantifiable. A brilliant mathematician navigates a world broken by colonialism, loss, and love, while also managing a strained, half-spoken relationship with a maternal figure. The story reminds us that pain, especially inherited pain, has no formula, and that mothers and daughters are often the first to feel its aftershocks.
Verdict
Lesley Nneka Arimah’s stories are sharp and lyrical, sometimes uncomfortable, always unforgettable. Her characters, especially the women, live in a world that demands too much from them and offers too little in return. Through speculative leaps and grounded realism, she lays bare the complexities of womanhood, especially the ache and ambition wrapped up in being a daughter, or a mother, or both.
At Zeda Book Club, When a Man Falls from the Sky sparked rich and emotional conversations. We talked about the expectations placed on us as daughters, the ways our mothers have tried to protect us (and sometimes hurt us), and the difficult work of healing across generations. The book held a mirror to many of our lives, and asked us to look closely.
This collection is for anyone who enjoys writing that defies genre, that is bold and intimate, and that understands the quiet power and pain of relationships between women. A must-read, and a stunning addition to African feminist literature.
Zeda Book Club is open to women to join. We café hop and read a new book every month. We meet on the first Sunday of each month in Nairobi. Join the group here. Happy reading!
