Skylight Books Podcast Series RICOCHET BOOKS LAUNCH PARTY!
Nigerians in Space by Deji Olukotun Good Night, Mr. Kissinger by K. Anis Ahmed
Started by Skylight's own Chris Heiser, Ricochet publishes literature, comics and lost classics from around the world. It also distributes books with publishing partners like sister nonprofit phoneme Media.
Get exclusive preview copies of Ricochet's first two books, Nigerians in Space by Deji Olukotunand Good Night, Mr. Kissinger by K. Anis Ahmed. Both titles are available together as a Ricochet Launch Special, which will give you Ricochet's debut books at a discount.
About Nigerians in Space
1993. Houston. Dr. Wale Olufunmi, lunar rock geologist, has a life most Nigerian immigrants would kill for, but then most Nigerians aren’t Wale—a great scientific mind in exile with galactic ambitions. Then comes an outlandish order: steal a piece of the moon. With both personal and national glory at stake, Wale manages to pull off the near impossible, setting out on a journey back to Nigeria that leads anywhere but home. Compelled by Wale’s impulsive act, Nigerians traces arcs in time and space from Houston to Stockholm, from Cape Town to Bulawayo, picking up on the intersecting lives of a South African abalone smuggler, a freedom fighter’s young daughter, and Wale’s own ambitious son. Deji Olukotun’s debut novel defies categorization—a story of international intrigue that tackles deeper questions about exile, identity, and the need to answer an elusive question: what exactly is brain gain?
About Good Night, Mr. Kissinger
Good Night, Mr. Kissinger opens in 1970, in the days before war, when an unfinished suburban house is suddenly occupied by the family of an untouchable and disarming girl. Her brief appearance in her young neighbor’s life overshadows (at least for a time) the tanks that soon roll onto their idyllic street. Kissinger ends in present day Dhaka, with the construction magnate Shabhaz ruminating about his dysfunctional family on the forty-first floor of the highest tower of the city—one which he himself built.
Ahmed plunges into this anarchic, overwhelming place, plucking individuals from the masses to tell stories of love and ambition, family secrets and exile. There are the brothers Bahram and Jamshed, whose father dresses them in similar clothes to avoid sibling rivalry. And Ramkamal, author of the greatest novel never written, whose disappearance leaves behind a group of disjointed followers trying to make sense of their lives. And there is James D’Costa, the exiled Bangladeshi waiter with an unlikely name, whose encounters with Henry Kissinger force a tense confrontation between past and future.
About RICOCHET BOOKS
Based in Los Angeles, Ricochet’s stories are anywhere but—set in South Africa, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Estonia and Istanbul. The translated poetry from our sister nonprofit Phoneme Media includes masterful translations from the Spanish, Portuguese, Uyghur and Arabic, as well as the experimental novellas of notorious Mexican writer Mario Bellatin.
No matter where our stories are set, Ricochet’s mission is simple: to help introduce new voices and perspectives that broaden our view of the world and the people that live in it, rather than confirm what is already familiar and safe. Hopefully, our stories will surprise you in some way.