'Sidik Fofana has an acute ear and a perfect eye' Lorrie Moore, author of Bark
'Every once in a while a new writer comes along and refreshes our notions of what fiction can do . . . Buy this book, and prepare to be blasted by the brilliance inside' Ben Fountain, author of Beautiful Country Burn Again
Banneker Terrace on 129th and Fred Doug ain't pretty, but it's home. Home to young and old, folk just trying to get by. Cookouts with beer and wings, summertime with souped-up cars bumpin music. People don't come here for the bad; they came here to make a good life.
It is home to Swan down in 6B, reconnecting with his boy Boons, just out of prison. Home to Mimi in 14D, raising Swan's child, doing hair on the side. Home to Quanneisha in 21J, longing to leave but it's where she grew up. Home to Mr Murray in 2E, who has played chess outside on the sidewalk for years. Some of the residents of Banneker have got it together, some can't make rent or pay bills, some are raising kids, some are hustling on the side, all are living.
Stories from the Tenants Downstairs expertly showcases the strengths, struggles and hopes of one Harlem community, a community grappling with the effects of gentrification alongside their own personal challenges. It captures the joy and pain of the human experience and heralds the arrival of a uniquely talented writer.
Stories from Our Tenants Downstairs follows nine different tenants in the Banneker Homes, a low-income housing project in Harlem, where the tenants face both internal struggles among each other, and endure a shared anxiety of their neighbourhood's looming gentrification. There is Swan in apartment 6R, whose excitement about his friend's return from prison jeopardises the straight life he's been trying to lead. Mimi, in apartment 14D, hustles to raise the child she had with Swan, while waitressing at Roscoe's and doing hair on the side. Quanneisha B. Miles, a former gymnast with a good education, would prefer to leave Banneker in her past, but cannot escape the building's pull. These people, and many others, overlap into each other's lives (and stories), in ways that force readers to root for them, despite the unbelievable odds they face to capture their dreams or run away from their pasts.
