New Releases by Helen Oyeyemi

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY ELLE, THE SEATTLE TIMES, LITERARY HUB, THE MILLIONS AND MORE! “A shape-shifting novel about the power of stories . . . Helen Oyeyemi is a literary pied piper—her voice is the kind that readers gamely follow into the most bewildering and unnerving of situations.” —The New York Times Book Review A tale of competitive friendship, elastic storytelling, and the meddling influence of a city called Prague. In Helen Oyeyemi’s joyous new novel, the Czech capital is a living thing—one that can let you in or spit you out. For reasons of her own, Hero Tojosoa accepts an invitation she was half expected to decline, and finds herself in Prague on a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend, Sofie Cibulkova. Little does she know she’s arrived in a city with a penchant for playing tricks on the unsuspecting. A book Hero has brought with her seems to be warping her mind: the text changes depending on when it’s being read and who’s doing the reading, revealing startling new stou00adries of fictional Praguers past and present. Unu00adinvited companions appear at bachelorette activities and at city landmarks, offering opinu00adions, humor, and even a taste of treachery. When a third woman from Hero and Sofie’s past apu00adpears unexpectedly, the tensions between the friends’ different accounts of the past reach a new level. An adventurous, kaleidoscopic novel, Parasol Against the Axe considers the lines between ilu00adlusion and delusion, fact and interpretation, and weighs the risks of attaching too firmly to the stories of a place, or a person, or a shared hisu00adtory. How much is a tale influenced by its reader, or vice versa? And finally, in a battle between friends, is it better to be the parasol or the axe?

DRAGÃO. DIABA. MEGERA. Ao longo dos séculos, em todos os lugares do mundo, muitas palavras foram usadas para nos definir e nos condenar. BRUACA. RAPARIGA. ENXERIDA. Essas palavras hoje nos alimentam, nos impulsionam, nos incendeiam. Essas palavras contam histórias. SIRENA. COSPE-FOGO. VITUPERADORA. Num caldeirão fervilhante, quinze autoras premiadas e best-sellers reivindicam essas palavras, criando uma irresistível e deliciosa coletânea de contos feministas para o século XXI.

“Enchanting . . . the most surprising, confounding, and oddly insightful couple’s trip in recent literary history.” —Entertainment Weekly The prize-winning, bestselling author of Gingerbread; Boy, Snow, Bird; and What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours returns with a vivid and inventive new novel about a couple forever changed by an unusual train voyage. When Otto and Xavier Shin declare their love, an aunt gifts them a trip on a sleeper train to mark their new commitment—and to get them out of her house. Setting off with their pet mongoose, Otto and Xavier arrive at their sleepy local train station, but quickly deduce that The Lucky Day is no ordinary locomotive. Their trip on this former tea-smuggling train has been curated beyond their wildest imaginations, complete with mysterious and welcoming touches, like ingredients for their favorite breakfast. They seem to be the only people on board, until Otto discovers a secretive woman who issues a surprising message. As further clues and questions pile up, and the trip upends everything they thought they knew, Otto and Xavier begin to see connections to their own pasts, connections that now bind them together. A spellbinding tale from a star author, Peaces is about what it means to be seen by another person—whether it’s your lover or a stranger on a train—and what happens when things you thought were firmly in the past turn out to be right beside you.

"Lo que no es tuyo no es tuyo" es una colección de relatos que comparten entre sí algo más que la colorida prosa de su autora: las llaves, literales y metafóricas, que desvelan secretos y abren por igual puertas y corazones. En un cuento dan acceso a una biblioteca perdida y a un jardín oculto en Barcelona, dos lugares que serán la clave del destino de las protagonistas; en otro, abren el corazón de una alumna en una escuela de marionetas; hay llaves que protegen de los fisgones un místico diario íntimo, y otras que cierran las puertas de una inquietante "casa de las cerraduras". Tomando los cuentos de hadas como punto de partida, Helen Oyeyemi revisita la tradición desde perspectivas insólitas y, gracias a su poderosa y brillante imaginación, nos transporta a lugares que, como en los sueños, nos resultan tan sorprendentes como reveladores. Premio Pen Open Book 2017 "Como Barbara Comyns, Helen Oyeyemi es un cruce pluscuamperfecto entre Shirley Jackson, los hermanos Grimm y cualquier enorme dama de la comedia británica que se precie". Laura Fernández "Oyeyemi nos lleva por caminos insospechados. El libro es un baño de imaginación desbordante". Núria Escur, La Vanguardia "Gloriosamente inquietante... La mayor alegría de leer Oyeyemi siempre será el estilo: irregular y caprichoso en momentos, exuberante y ondulado en otros, siempre singular, como la voz en off de un sueño febril". The New York Times Book Review "Otra obra maestra de una autora que parece incapaz de escribir algo que no sea brillante". NPR

"Exhilarating...A wildly imagined, head-spinning, deeply intelligent novel." - The New York Times Book Review "[W]ildly inventive…[Helen Oyeyemi''s] prose is not without its playful bite." –Vogue The prize-winning, bestselling author of Boy Snow Bird, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, and Peaces returns with a bewitching and imaginative novel. Influenced by the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children''s stories, beloved novelist Helen Oyeyemi invites readers into a delightful tale of a surprising family legacy, in which the inheritance is a recipe. Perdita Lee may appear to be your average British schoolgirl; Harriet Lee may seem just a working mother trying to penetrate the school social hierarchy; but there are signs that they might not be as normal as they think they are. For one thing, they share a gold-painted, seventh-floor walk-up apartment with some surprisingly verbal vegetation. And then there''s the gingerbread they make. Londoners may find themselves able to take or leave it, but it''s very popular in Druhástrana, the far-away (or, according to many sources, non-existent) land of Harriet Lee''s early youth. The world''s truest lover of the Lee family gingerbread, however, is Harriet''s charismatic childhood friend Gretel Kercheval —a figure who seems to have had a hand in everything (good or bad) that has happened to Harriet since they met. Decades later, when teenaged Perdita sets out to find her mother''s long-lost friend, it prompts a new telling of Harriet''s story. As the book follows the Lees through encounters with jealousy, ambition, family grudges, work, wealth, and real estate, gingerbread seems to be the one thing that reliably holds a constant value. Endlessly surprising and satisfying, written with Helen Oyeyemi''s inimitable style and imagination, it is a true feast for the reader.

Wilde, bunte Geschichten für wilde, bunte Zeiten Das neue Buch der international gefeierten Autorin. Ausgezeichnet mit dem PEN Open Book Award. Gewinnerin des Sommerset Maugham Award. Gewinnerin des Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. »Überragend.« The New York Times Book Review »Oyeyemi bremst für niemanden.« Vulture Alles beginnt mit einem ausgesetzten Baby, das einen goldenen Schlüssel zu einem verwunschenen Garten um den Hals trägt ... Helen Oyeyemi trägt uns mit ihrer unvergleichlichen Fantasie durch Zeiten und Länder, verwischt die Grenzen gleichzeitig existierender Wirklichkeiten, verbindet dabei leichtfüßig den Erzählreigen durch immer wiederkehrende Figuren, Schauplätze und vor allem – Schlüssel. Schlüssel zu Orten, Herzen und Geheimnissen. Und immer wieder stellt sich die Frage, ob ein Schlüssel wirklich gedreht werden soll, oder ob es besser ist, dem Unbekannten seine Magie zu lassen. Helen Oyeyemis immer überraschende Geschichten nähren sich aus Märchen und Mythen und wendet sie zu einem geistreichen Kommentar einer sehr aktuellen Gegenwart. »Helen Oyeyemi ist eine der aufregendsten, geistreichsten und neugierigsten Schriftstellerinnen unserer Zeit – und eine Autorin von Sätzen, die so elegant sind, dass sie leuchten.« The Times »Jede Zeile vibriert vor Leben; jedes Bild ist so präzise, stimmig und funkelnd, als wäre es aus Glas geschnitten. Eine wirklich ausgesprochen schöne Geschichtensammlung, voller Ideen und Bilder, die noch für eine sehr lange Zeit in den Gedanken nachklingen.« Vox »Freigeistig und erfinderisch ... Diese Geschichten sind voller Zärtlichkeit, Humor und seltsamer Freuden.« The Financial Times

There is in the short story, at its most characteristic, something we do not often find in the novel, Frank O’Connor wrote, ‘an intense awareness of human loneliness.’ The stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award with BookTrust 2017 all feature characters that are disconnected, willingly or unwillingly, from those around them: a mysterious out-of-towner is shunned by her new colleagues; a grieving husband retreats into his old compulsion for hoarding; a promising academic risks his career for a casual liaison with a younger man. And whether we follow the characters’ need to be alone – like the fisherman drifting dangerously far from shore – or trace it back to its root – like the daughter burying her violent father – what we find there is always unexpected. Jenni Fagan, Benjamin Markovits and Helen Oyeyemi, three of Granta’s recent ‘20 under 40’, are joined by critic and novelist, Will Eaves and Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize winner, Cynan Jones on the 2017 shortlist. This year’s shortlist was selected by authors Eimear McBride, Jon McGregor and Sunjeev Sahota, as well as BBC Radio’s Di Speirs and acclaimed novelist Joanna Trollope who chaired the panel and introduces the collection.

"Transcendent." —The New York Times Book Review "Flawless. . . another masterpiece from an author who seems incapable of writing anything that''s less than brilliant." —NPR From the award-winning author of Boy, Snow, Bird and Peaces comes an enchanting collection of intertwined stories. Playful, ambitious, and exquisitely imagined, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is cleverly built around the idea of keys, literal and metaphorical. The key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret—Oyeyemi’s keys not only unlock elements of her characters’ lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side. In “Books and Roses” one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers’ fates. In “Is Your Blood as Red as This?” an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea” involves a “house of locks,” where doors can be closed only with a key—with surprising, unobservable developments. And in “If a Book Is Locked There’s Probably a Good Reason for That Don''t You Think,” a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason). Oyeyemi’s tales span multiple times and landscapes as they tease boundaries between coexisting realities. Is a key a gate, a gift, or an invitation? What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours captivates as it explores the many possible answers.

«Con i suoi personaggi a tutto tondo, le immagini sorprendenti, le osservazioni originali e le lucide verità, questo capolavoro parla al cuore e alla mente del lettore». «Kirkus Reviews» «Helen Oyeyemi è la piú brava del reame». Ron Charles, «The Washington Post»

Published alongside the Hayward Gallery''s hosting of a major solo exhibition by Carsten Höller featuring a wide range of work in different media representing his artistic output from the past 20 years.After obtaining an advanced degree in science, Höller went on to develop a unique art practice that often draws on scientific experiments and research in works designed to affect our psychological and perceptual experience.His works have been shown internationally over the last two decades, including solo exhibitions at Tate Modern (2006, featuring his famous Turbine Hall slide), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2008), and New Museum, New York (2011).Carsten Höller: Decision consists of two uniquely packaged, distinctive publications, examining the work of the acclaimed artist and his particular interest in the challenges, outcomes and effects of decision-making.Book 1 - contains a collection of newly commissioned short stories exploring the theme of decision-making by acclaimed writers Naomi Alderman, Jenni Fagan, Deborah Levy, Helen Oyeyemi, Jonathan Lethem, and Ali Smith. Book 2 - offers a photographic interpretation of the multiple ways of experiencing Höller''s immersive work, accompanied by an extensive interview with the artist, led by Ralph Rugoff, Hayward Gallery Director and curator of the show.Published on the occasion of the exhibition Carsten Höller: Decision at Hayward Gallery, London, 10 June - 6 September 2015.

Boy est née à Manhattan dans les années 1930. Son père est un preneur de rats. Il la maltraite sans cesse. De sa mère absente on ne parle jamais. Dès qu''elle a vingt ans, Boy choisit de s''enfuir. Arrivée dans une petite ville du Massachusetts, elle fait la connaissance d''Arturo Whitman, veuf qui vit avec sa fille Snow dont la beauté fait l''unanimité. Boy épouse Arturo et Bird naît au printemps. Elle est belle, mais elle est sombre. Comment expliquer cette petite fille de couleur ? La famille Whitman aurait-elle des origines afro-américaines passées inaperçues à cause de la blancheur de leur peau ? Et Boy, de qui est-elle la fille ? Une belle-mère, une jeune Snow, des miroirs, tous les éléments sont réunis pour une habile réécriture d''un conte bien connu. Blanche-Neige dans l''Amérique des fifties.

Two plays exploring the pain of living and the difficulty of dying by a sensational new writer Juniper''s Whitening "Tell me this - is it true that if you make someone die, and they come out the other side, it doesn''t matter? I''m sure something clung to Lazarus. Something must''ve shone through him." In Aleph, Beth and Juniper''s nightmare house, kindness is entrapment, and resurrection is a weapon. Aleph love/hates Beth, Beth love/hates Aleph, and all Juniper knows is that Beth can''t seem to stop being murdered. One thing above all: none of them must look out of the window. Victimese "I was thinking, Eve, that you need to touch bottom - just so you know you can do it. So you know it''s not that difficult; so you know that you don''t have to tunnel far; so you know that you''re not that actually as deep as you think you are." Eve is unable to leave her student room but unable to bear staying in it. In harming herself she hopes to demonstrate her courage and independence to both herself and her friends. But her sister''s arrival and need for her friendship forces her to face painful truths and to examine whether it is possible to temper emotional courage with the humanity to give and ask for aid.

As seen on the cover of the New York Times Book Review, where it was described as “gloriously unsettling… evoking Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, Angela Carter, Edgar Allan Poe, Gabriel García Márquez, Chris Abani and even Emily Dickinson,” and already one of the year’s most widely acclaimed novels: “Helen Oyeyemi has fully transformed from a literary prodigy into a powerful, distinctive storyteller…Transfixing and surprising.”—Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A) “I don’t care what the magic mirror says; Oyeyemi is the cleverest in the land…daring and unnerving… Under Oyeyemi’s spell, the fairy-tale conceit makes a brilliant setting in which to explore the alchemy of racism, the weird ways in which identity can be transmuted in an instant — from beauty to beast or vice versa.” – Ron Charles, The Washington Post From the prizewinning author of What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, Gingerbread, and Peaces comes a brilliant recasting of the Snow White fairy tale as a story of family secrets, race, beauty, and vanity. In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts looking, she believes, for beauty—the opposite of the life she’s left behind in New York. She marries Arturo Whitman, a local widower, and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow. A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she’d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy’s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African-Americans passing for white. And even as Boy, Snow, and Bird are divided, their estrangement is complicated by an insistent curiosity about one another. In seeking an understanding that is separate from the image each presents to the world, Boy, Snow, and Bird confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold. Dazzlingly inventive and powerfully moving, Boy, Snow, Bird is an astonishing and enchanting novel. With breathtaking feats of imagination, Helen Oyeyemi confirms her place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of our time.

Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award One of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists From the acclaimed author of What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, Gingerbread, and Peaces There’s something strange about the Silver family house in the closed-off town of Dover, England. Grand and cavernous with hidden passages and buried secrets, it’s been home to four generations of Silver women—Anna, Jennifer, Lily, and now Miranda, who has lived in the house with her twin brother, Eliot, ever since their father converted it to a bed-and-breakfast. The Silver women have always had a strong connection, a pull over one another that reaches across time and space, and when Lily, Miranda’s mother, passes away suddenly while on a trip abroad, Miranda begins suffering strange ailments. An eating disorder starves her. She begins hearing voices. When she brings a friend home, Dover’s hostility toward outsiders physically manifests within the four walls of the Silver house, and the lives of everyone inside are irrevocably changed. At once an unforgettable mystery and a meditation on race, nationality, and family legacies, White is for Witching is a boldly original, terrifying, and elegant novel by a prodigious talent.

The BBC National Short story Award is one of the world''s largest awards for a single short story. All five shortlisted stories, including the winner, are published here side by side. The Award is designed to honour Britain''s finest short story writers and to re-establish the importance of the short story as a central literary form. This year''s shortlist brings together a high calibre group of new and established authors exploring human relationships at their most dysfunctional and yet sustaining. Splintered families, the persistence of love, the public versus the private, and the plight of the outsider all provide a recurring focus for the authors in the running for the prize, which marks its fifth year in 2010. The panel of judges this year includes the author and Guardian journalist Kamila Shamsie, author and poet Owen Sheers, author Shena MacKay, BBC Editor of Readings, Di Speirs and the Today Programme''s James Naughtie, who also introduces the collection.

In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty—the opposite of the life she’s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman. A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she’d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy’s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as lightskinned African Americans passing for white. Among them, Boy, Snow, and Bird confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold. Dazzlingly inventive and powerfully moving, Boy, Snow, Bird is an astonishing and enchanting novel. With breathtaking feats of imagination, Helen Oyeyemi confirms her place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of our time.

''Rich and witty ... it confirms Helen Oyeyemi as a true original'' Ali Smith ''Powerful ... wonderfully unsettling ... Oyeyemi''s raw style is great'' Time Out ''Beautiful ... this is about the difficulties of knowing who you are, especially if you are born of several incompatible cultures. It has the ring of truth'' The Times Maja Carmen Carrera was only five years old when her black Cuban family emigrated from the Caribbean to London, leaving her with one complete memory: a woman singing - in a voice both eerie and enthralling - at their farewell party, while little Maja peered out from beneath a table. Now, almost twenty years later, Maja herself is a singer, in love with Aaron, pregnant and haunted by what she calls ''her Cuba''. Growing up in London, she has struggled to negotiate her history and the sense that speaking the Spanish or the English of her people''s conquistadors made her less of a black girl. But she is unable to find in herself the Ewe, Igbo, or Swahili of her roots. It seems all that''s left is silence. And on the other side of the reality wall, Yemaya Saramagua, Yemaya of the ocean, lives in the Somewherehouse with two doors: one opening to London, the other to Lagos. Yemaya is troubled by the ease with which her fellow gods have disguised themselves as saints and reappeared under different names and faces... ________________________ The Opposite House is about the disquiet that follows us across places and languages, a feeling passed down from mother and father to son and daughter. It is an unforgettable second novel from the author of The Icarus Girl.

De Amerikaanse schrijver Mr. Fox raakt zo in de ban van zijn imaginaire vrouwelijke muze dat zijn echtgenote jaloers wordt.

Abominable Mister Fox : Mary Foxe savait bien qu''il faudrait plus qu''un claquement de doigts pour qu''il change ses manières, ce serait difficile mais toutes ses prévisions étaient pulvérisées. Elle avait honte d''avoir brûlé ses histoires à lui. Mais comment aurait-elle pu laisser Mister Fox la décapiter ? Auteur à succès dans le Manhattan des années 1930, Mister Fox se prend pour Barbe-Bleue jusqu''au jour où Mary, sa muse, lui demande de revoir ses certitudes et l''entraîne dans une folle course-poursuite. S''incarnant tour à tour sous les traits du Docteur Lustucru, de Bleue et Brune ou de Madame de Silentio, l''un et l''autre mettent leurs rêves de vie à deux à l''épreuve. Le jeu se poursuit dans une aventure imaginaire, que vient soudain interrompre Daphné, l''épouse de Mister Fox. Après Le blanc va aux sorcières, Helen Oyeyemi revisite le triangle amoureux et nous offre avec Mister Fox un roman sombre et tendre à la fois, au charme irrésistible et jubilatoire.

Winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction One of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists From the prizewinning young writer of What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, Gingerbread, and Peaces comes a brilliant and inventive story of love, lies, and inspiration. Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding, and the fairy tales don''t get complicated. In this book, the celebrated writer Mr. Fox can''t stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It''s not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently. Mary challenges Mr. Fox to join her in stories of their own devising; and in different times and places, the two of them seek each other, find each other, thwart each other, and try to stay together, even when the roles they inhabit seem to forbid it. Their adventures twist the fairy tale into nine variations, exploding and teasing conventions of genre and romance, and each iteration explores the fears that come with accepting a lifelong bond. Meanwhile, Daphne becomes convinced that her husband is having an affair, and finds her way into Mary and Mr. Fox''s game. And so Mr. Fox is offered a choice: Will it be a life with the girl of his dreams, or a life with an all-too-real woman who delights him more than he cares to admit? The extraordinarily gifted Helen Oyeyemi has written a love story like no other. Mr. Fox is a magical book, endlessly inventive, as witty and charming as it is profound in its truths about how we learn to be with one another.

This title features twenty stories connected by the theme of Vision which were judged to be the best by the judges of the 2007 University of Hertfordshire Writing Award: Helen Oyeyemi, Josh Lacey, Philippa Milne-Smith.

A stunning first novel about spirits, twins and an extraordinary little girl

«La niña Ícaro es una historia de soledad abrumadora, corrosiva... El estilo de la autora es osado, crudo y, con frecuencia, doloroso en su intensidad. Una historia conmovedora sobre la angustia de la separación de todo aquello que debería ser lo más familiar y preciado».The Times«No quieras ser de este mundo, niña a medias. Déjalo. No hay nada. Sólo estoy yo, y te he atrapado».Lírica, poética, estremecedora y absorbente, La niña Ícaro es una novela que trata el tema clásico del álter ego y de la existencia real o espiritual de «dobles», y habla de una niña que crece entre dos culturas y dos colores. Esta obra anuncia la llegada de un nuevo talento literario.Jessamy tiene ocho años. Sensible, enigmática, poseedora de una imaginación desbordante y poderosa, se pasa las horas escribiendo haiku, leyendo a Shakespeare o sencillamente escondida en la oscura calidez del armario de las toallas. Hija entre dos mundos de padre inglés y madre nigeriana, Jess es incapaz de deshacerse del sentimiento de soledad que la embarga esté donde esté, y sus compañeros de clase observan con recelo su tendencia a sufrir terribles ataques de histeria.Cuando visita por primera vez el poblado de la familia de su madre en Nigeria, conoce a sus tíos, tías, primos y a su formidable abuelo. Además, un día, se topa con TillyTilly, una niña indigente de su edad. Parece que Jess ha encontrado por fin a otra inadaptada que la comprenderá. TillyTilly conoce todos los secretos, los grandes y los pequeños, y guarda algunos que no está dispuesta a desvelar. Pero cuando TillyTilly le muestra a Jess lo fácil que es herir a quienes la rodean, Jess empieza a darse cuenta de que no tiene ni la más remota idea de quién es la otra niña. Helen Oyeyemi nació en Nigeria en 1984 y se trasladó a Londres cuando tenía cuatro años. Escribió La niña Ícaro cuando estaba todavía en el instituto preparándose para las pruebas de acceso a la Universidad. En la actualidad estudia Ciencias Sociales y Políticas en el Corpus Christi College de Cambridge.

Jessamy Harrison, 8 ans, née d''un père anglais et d''une mère nigériane, est une enfant étrange, solitaire, qui déteste l''école. Elle joue toujours seule, lisant, écrivant ou vivant dans un univers imaginaire. Lors de son premier voyage au Nigeria pour faire la connaissance de son grand-père, elle rencontre une petite fille qui lui ressemble, TillyTilly, dont le comportement est très mystérieux: personne ne semble la voir et elle est capable d''ouvrir toutes les portes, si bien fermées soient-elles. A son retour en Angleterre, Jess voit réapparaître une TillyTilly de plus en plus inquiétante et méchante. Alors, elle s''interroge sur l''existence de son amie. Serait-elle sa jumelle, morte à la naissance? Jess s''est-elle inventé une compagne qui lui sert à libérer sa violence et ses peurs ? La Petite Icare nous fait entrer dans un univers magique, onirique, nourri de mythes africains. L''auteur possède une voix originale, poétique, et d''une rare maturité pour évoquer avec justesse les fractures de l''enfance.

Die 8-jährige Jess, Kind eines englischen Vaters und einer nigerianischen Mutter, erzählt wie schwierig es ist, zwischen beiden Kulturen zu leben. Ist ihre unsichtbare Freundin TillyTilly ihr Alter Ego? - Oder ein Geistwesen aus Afrika? Eine ergreifende Geschichte der Zerissenheit und Einsamkeit.

Un cuplu primește cadou pentru luna de miere o călătorie la bordul unui tren neobișnuit. Și acesta este singurul lucru de care poți fi sigur atunci când pătrunzi în lumea creată de Oyeyemi, misterele acumulându-se cu fiecare pagină. Manguste pe post de animale de companie, bărbați alergând în clădiri în flăcări pentru a salva oameni care se dovedesc a nu fi acolo, tablouri care-și schimbă compoziția în funcție de privitor, artiști excentrici, un testament cu bucluc și, mai ales, prezența/absența unui personaj enigmatic, în legătură cu care personajele nu pot cădea de acord dacă există sau nu. Helen Oyeyemi construiește un univers oniric unde totul este posibil, dar în care cititorul nu se rătăcește, ci dă nas în nas cu dorințe pe care nici nu știa că le are.