Stories from the Tenants Downstairs

"Among the eight, interconnected short stories set in a Harlem high rise is one that will break you: a middle schooler named Najee who’s struggling to write a remorseful letter to a friend’s mother. There’s also a would-be hairdresser who’s mortified when he goes viral and a young woman wrestling with animosity and vengeance toward one of her neighbors-in-need. Sidik Fofana’s characters tell their stories in such vivid voices, rendered so completely, that you swear you can see their facial expressions and hear their breathing as you laugh at their wit and hurt at their pain: a brilliant debut."