A Little Piece of Sky
A Novel
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5.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A poignant, powerful debut that combines the deep emotion of The House on Mango Street with uniquely creative storytelling, painting a story of survival and healing.
Unfolding in a series of vignettes, A Little Piece of Sky introduces an endearing new novelist and a truly unforgettable main character--Song Byrd, a young girl who keenly reports on the world around her. She is African American in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood and the unwanted product of an adulterous affair. While she is poor in the material sense, Song is extraordinarily rich in spirit and it is that inner strength which saves her.
In piercingly insightful prose, Nicole Bailey-Williams takes readers on Song’s journey through life as she struggles with feeling like an outsider and intense guilt over her mother’s murder. Behind it all, places of pure joy, “dreaming the hurt away,” and glorious little pieces of sky shine through. Song’s tales--and Bailey-Williams’s narrative gift--are truly words to treasure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This story of an African-American girl who beats the odds is certainly familiar, but Bailey-Williams's spare narration and concise prose establish her as a new author with a powerful voice and plenty to say. Song Byrd was born into the ghetto of North Philadelphia with an absent father, a mother who turns to prostitution, a sister who steals to support her drug habit and a brother who winds up in prison for raping an elderly woman. What saves Song is her inner strength and the attentions of a neighbor named Miss Olga, but her pivotal break comes on the heels of tragedy, when her mother is shot by the girlfriend of one of her paramours. Song moves in with her father, although the girl still battles the guilt she feels over her mother's death. That guilt leads to a revelatory sequence of chapters in which Song sees a therapist and comes to terms with her past, while negotiating a new relationship with a young man named Anthony. The narrative appeals, but what really makes the book work is the incisive, succinct and compelling prose, which turns a simple story into an insightful character exploration. Bailey-Williams's success will ultimately rest on her ability to take her plots in different directions, but this debut marks her as a promising figure in this genre.
Customer Reviews
Beautiful book
Beautifully written. I really enjoyed this prose.