Heidi W. Durrow - The Girl Who Fell from the Sky

Praise for The Girl Who Fell from the Sky

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky can actually fly Its energy comes from its vividly realized characters, from how they perceive one another. Durrow has a terrific ear for dialogue, an ability to summon a wealth of hopes and fears in a single line.

The New York Times Book Review

An auspicious debut [Durrow] has crafted a modern story about identity and survival.

The Washington Post Book World

A complex, serious novel of interracial life in America Both gripping and instructive reading.

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Rachels voice resonated in my reading mind in much the same way as did that of the young protagonist of The House on Mango Street. Theres an achingly honest quality to it; both wise and naive, it makes you want to step between the pages to lend comfort.

NPRs Morning Edition

A breathless telling of a tale weve never heard before. Haunting and lovely, pitch-perfect, this book could not be more timely.

Barbara Kingsolver

Hauntingly beautiful prose Exquisitely told Rachels tale has the potential of becoming seared in your memory.

The Dallas Morning News

[An] affecting, exquisite debut novel Durrows powerful novel is poised to find a place among classic stories of the American experience.

The Miami Herald

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is that rare thing: a post-postmodern novel with heart that weaves a circle of stories about race and self-discovery into a tense and sometimes terrifying whole.

Ms.

Durrow has written a story that is quite literally breathtaking. There were times when I found myself gasping out loud, and at all times I was haunted by the events that shape Rachels existence.

Elle

Stunning What makes Durrows novel soar is her masterful sense of voice, her assured, nuanced handling of complex racial issues and her heart.

The Christian Science Monitor

Simply put, Durrow has written a beautiful novel. There is pain in it, but there is a great deal of love as well The result is a story that moves along, packing an emotional wallop that lasts well after the reading stops.

The Oregonian

In reading Heidi Durrows captivating and moving novel, it is hard not to recall the writer Nella Larsens own work, touching on some of the same complexities of race and gender. But it would be a mistake to think of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky as an issue novel when it engages the heart as much as it does the mind Unforgettable.

Whitney Otto, author of A Collection of Beauties
at the Height of Their Popularity

Durrow manages that remarkable achievement of telling a subtle, complex story that speaks in equal volumes to children and adults. Like Catcher in the Rye or To Kill a Mockingbird, Durrows debut features voices that will ring in the ears long after the book is closed Its a captivating and original tale that shouldnt be missed.

The Denver Post

[A] heartbreaking debut Keeps the reader in thrall.

The Boston Globe

One of those rare novels that reflect urban life in multicultural America, the way we live now Heidi Durrow is a wonderfully gifted writer who can summon a voice, a memorable character, with bold, swift strokes. The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is a gem, and it shimmers in a way that good readers will notice and appreciate.

Jay Parini, author of Promised Land

A beautiful, soaring tale A fresh approach that brings together the magic (and the tragedy) of a Scandinavian fairy tale with the difficult realities of race in America today.

Chattanooga Times Free Press

Haunting, memorable, frighteningly frank and yet still uplifting. It is likely one of the best books to be published this year.

The Roanoke Times

Durrows Rachel is a young mixed race woman who is anything but tragic. Despite her complex journey through alienation and despair she emerges as a woman with her own voice, open to a world of possibilities Rise above. Take flight. Move on. This is the message delivered so elegantly to the reader.

The Huffington Post

Moving Durrow skillfully parses the challenges of growing up mixed-race in America.

The Charlotte Observer

A moving meditation on loss and coming of age as a biracial woman in America [Durrow] packs volumes of meaning into compact, bombshell sentences that explode on the reader one right after the other.

The Providence Journal-Bulletin

Well worth the read. When one considers that Durrow has achieved with her first novel something reminiscent of Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye, or even her masterpiece Beloved, then The Girl Who Fell from the Sky soars to the height of a novel not to be missed.

Bookslut.com

A moving portrait of race and class.

Virginia Living

[Durrow] is an exceptionally skilled storyteller with a gift for inhabiting her characters voices and bringing them to life from the inside out.

The Charleston Post and Courier

A striking cast of characters [An] insightful family saga of the toxicity of racism and the forging of the self Durrow brings piercing authenticity to this provocative tale.

Booklist, starred review

Taut prose, a controversial conclusion and the thoughtful reflection on racism and racial identity resonate without treading into political or even overtly specific agenda waters, as the story succeeds as both a modern coming-of-age and relevant social commentary.

Publishers Weekly

Artfully constructed and beautifully written Durrow writes with smarts and sensitivity about those who claim more than one identity and who point us toward a future in which all of us, of any race, will claim to be American.

Hettie Jones, author of How I Became Hettie Jones

A stunning debut The Girl Who Fell from the Sky will be read and reread as one of the most convincing, original, and moving novels in the distinguished canon of American interracial literature.

George Hutchinson, author of In Search
of Nella Larsen: A Biography of the Color Line

A remarkable novel. It unfolds its secrets with the perfect placement of a mystery. I had trouble putting it down its core story about a mothers desperate act recalls the insights of a writer no less than Toni Morrison. Durrow writes fearlessly about race, memory, and family she is a writer to watch.

Joan Silber

Heidi Durrows first novel stunned me and partially broke my heart Ms. Durrow has created a resonant world all her own.

Susan Straight

The Girl Who Fell
from the

Sky

a novel by

Heidi W. Durrow

Published by
ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL
Post Office Box 2225
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

a division of
WORKMAN PUBLISHING
225 Varick Street
New York, New York 10014

2010 by Heidi W. Durrow.
All rights reserved.
First paperback edition, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, January
2011. Originally published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in 2010.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited.
Design by Anne Winslow.

This is a work of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions