This 'true feat of imagination and wonder' (Nikesh Shukla) transports readers on an odyssey of love, grief, mayhem and delight.
Dawn breaks across the archipelago of Popisho. The world is stirring awake again, each resident with their own list of things to do:
A wedding feast to conjure and cook
An infidelity to investigate
A lost soul to set free
As the sun rises two star-crossed lovers try to find their way back to one another across this single day.
When night falls, all have been given a gift, and many are no longer the same.
The sky is pink, and some wonder if it will ever be blue again.
'This One Sky Day is fire and magic. Leone Ross's ruthless humour immerses us in a dense, rich place where stories twist and worlds collide in audacious ways.' - Ingrid Persaud
About the Author
Leone Ross was born in England and grew up in Jamaica. Her first novel, All the Blood Is Red, was longlisted for the Orange Prize, and her second novel, Orange Laughter, was chosen as a BBC Radio 4 Women's Hour Watershed Fiction favourite. Her short fiction has been widely anthologised and her first short-story collection, the 2017 Come Let Us Sing Anyway was nominated for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Saboteur Awards and the OCM BOCAS Prize. Ross has taught creative writing for twenty years, at University College Dublin, Cardiff University and Roehampton University in London. She is editor of the first black British anthology of speculative fiction, due out in 2022 with Peepal Tree Press. Prior to writing fiction, Ross worked as a journalist. Leone Ross lives in London but intends to retire near water.
Industry Reviews
"'A glorious shout of a novel, a sensual, saturated blend of romance, magical realism and erotic comedy . . . Bravura pieces of whimsy blend with intimate explorations of grief, childlessness and crises of sexuality in an intricate narrative set on a single day.' - Alex Clark, Guardian
'A haunting story about grief and love . . . Among the many charms of the novel is the way it celebrates the oddness of life.' - Independent
'Easily one of the most gorgeous and lavishly sprawling books of 2021 . . . Ross's descriptions are rich with inventiveness, colour, flavour.' - Financial Times
'A bold and bizarre story set over one day on a fictional Caribbean archipelago. In Popisho, everyone has a ""cors"" - some small piece of magic that is entirely their own. We follow star-crossed lovers Xavier, a master chef who can flavour food through the palms of his hands, and Anise, who learns of someone's ailment simply by touching them. Ross spins delight from utter mayhem - at one point, the vulva of every woman on the island drops out of their bodies, for no apparent reason - resulting in a work that is unpredictable and wonderfully fearless.' - New Statesman
'Intensely absorbing, this dazzling tale charts two lovers on the imaginary Caribbean archipelago of Popisho who must find their way back to each other over a single day. Vividly conjured, This One Sky Day brings to life a colourful cast of characters facing life-changing decisions across the island: Xavier who has a wedding feast to conjure and cook while Anise an infidelity to investigate. Love, second chances and fate, with razor-sharp postcolonial satire, this love story has already drawn comparisons to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison and Arundhati Roy.' - Cosmopolitan
'One of those everyone will be talking about.' - Sara Collins
'Magical. Just magical . . . a true feat of imagination and wonder.' - Nikesh Shukla
'A big, carnivalesque novel that takes on desire, addiction and postcolonialism, but is also a celebration of food, love and joy.' - Guardian, 'Books to Look Forward to in 2021'
'I now understand why Leone Ross took so long in writing This One Sky Day. A novel this big in heart and imagination, this beautiful in prose, takes time. And my goodness it's worth it. This is a stunning novel.' - Kei Miller
' A masterful blend of magical realism, satire and sheer joy: every page has something new to enchant the reader.' - The Bookseller"
