Bannekar Terrace in Harlem is a high-rise building that is home to many on low incomes. The building now has new owners who have plans to develop the units so that they will attract more up-market residents, but first, they need the existing residents to leave and so rents are rising to levels that will result in evictions. This book is a series of eight stories of some of these struggling residents and all are interconnected. They are also told in various styles and voices. But what we do see are very real characters who all have their own dreams and struggles. Written as it is in the dialect of Harlem, I did struggle initially to understand it but managed to get the meaning of most of it. But what comes through is the perspective of a group of people who feel that while life is unfair, they are doing the best they can do. There were two stories that stood out for me. Firstly, that of Mrs Dallas, a classroom assistant, and maybe it is because I used to teach that her story reaches me. The second is a letter written by Narjee, a young lad who is trying to find the right words. A debut novel that brings you eight very different voices.

This was an interesting read up to 30% but I just felt like I couldn't get into it. I'm not sure if it was the writing for me, I couldn't follow it very well.

Stories From the Tenants Downstairs
By Sidik Fofana

Banneker Homes is a high rise building in Harlem, full of tenants who are eeking out a hand to mouth living. Making rent is the biggest priority on these folks' minds, because gentrification is looming and landlord doesn't need much of an excuse to slap an eviction notice on your door.

This is a series of linked short stories with the overriding theme of trying to keep your head above the bread line. Each story has it's own voice, be it the label conscious hairstylist with all the side hustles, the deadbeat son who will happily beat on the deliver boy for free food, the mimimum wage teacher's aide who has almost checked out but for her basic decency, the kids with their survival and acceptance problems. Fofana creates a unique voice for each one, all told in the vernacular, some of which read flowingly enough, some I had to read them aloud to hear what they were saying.

There's tragedy, injustice, bullying, criminality, grudges, sleight of hand, but there's also joy, endurance, ambition, advocacy, friendship and kind heartedness. My favourite characters are Mimi and Ms Dallas, but there is something to ponder in every one of these stories.

This has been compared to The Women of Brewster Place and that is actually a great comparison. It's a window into a world I hope most of us will not experience and it feels authentic.

Publication Date: 19th January 2023
Thank you to #netgalley and #johnmurraypress for the ARC

This was an interesting premise and I enjoyed having the multiple characters storylines woven into each other's lives.

The two things I love about this book is the diversity in the characters and the way they are linked. Their stories are well intertwined and their perspectives are well represented. I also really like the way the author explores the affects of prejudice and gentrification in Harlem.

The only thing I didn't like was the cursing and profanity. It's purely my preference as a reader, but there was way too much for me to find this enjoyable for start to finish. A lot of unnecessary to the character's personality or conversations, so it definitely had a negative effect on my reading experience.

I loved this novel: it put me in mind of 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' by Jennifer Egan, connecting multiple narrators in a particular space, and reading either as a series of short stories or as a fluid novel. The narrators had very particular and distinctive voices, and there were turns of phrases that were stunning. It reads as both crystallizing a way of living and life, and also mourning for it: the novel portrays the onward and seemingly unstoppable creep of gentrification so clearly. I'm really excited to read more from Sidik Fofana.

I have a mixed relationship with short stories. I go through phases of loving them, and then I tend to go back to novels. Reading this reminded me how powerful they can be!

The 8 stories in this book are all linked by the fact that they’re written from the perspective of the tenants of Banneker Terrace, a high-rise in Harlem, NY. The people living here face eviction in the midst of gentrification, along with daily struggles of their own.

Sidik Fofana embodies each unique voice so well, whether writing as a 12 year old boy who just wants to be good at something, or a woman in her 50s grappling with the micro aggressions of her colleague. My favourite story was Lite Feet - probably the most painful read of the bunch 😭

This was heartbreaking, funny, gritty and sobering all at once. I’m excited to read more from Fofana is this debut is anything to go by!

#storiesfromthetenantsdownstairs #sidikfofana #shortstories #johnmurraypress #literaryfiction #readin2022 #novella #bookstagram #litfic

This was a great read - super easy and flowed so nicely. I raced through it which is always a good sign!

Stories from the Tenants Downstairs expertly showcases the strengths, struggles and hopes of one Harlem community. An unforgettable story. It's beautiful all through,

The talented Sidik Fofana totally nails the short story format with this, his powerful debut collection of 8 interconnected stories, set in a Harlem low income high rise, Banneker Terrace, with residents struggling to survive, move on from their pasts, often working more than one job with their hopes for the future. Life brings additional challenges in the form of gentrification with rent rises and the threat of evictions hanging over them. Astute and perceptive, beautifully written, in different narrative styles and tone, each character has a distinctive voice as we learn of their particular issues and background, trying to do their best facing the universality of the themes so often associated with poverty, inequality and injustice.

You get a real feel of the wide range of human experiences of living in a flawed world and of lives lived under pressure, featuring their relationships, the heartbreak, pain, love and joy, and of being part of this particular community. Their circumstances include bringing up a child, the problems that come when welcoming a friend back from prison, the insights and tales of schoolchildren, the personal losses, burdens of guilt and stress, and where playing chess can bring harrassment. These superb stories are profound, moving, vibrant, and thought provoking and which I highly recommend, prepare to meet a memorable and authentic set of characters that make an emotional impact, such as Mimi, Swan, Najee and Mr Murray. I look forward with great anticipation to whatever the author writes next! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and John Murray Press for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Tenants Downstairs is a debut novel that takes us through the lives of different individuals living in an apartment building in Harlem facing gentrification.

I honestly don’t know what to say other than that I utterly enjoyed this book. I’m a sucker for short story books, and this definitely delivered. I think Sidik Fofana excelled at distinctively creating characters that sounded and felt different; although they’re all living in the same building and facing the same problem of rent and eviction, it also seemed like they were all in their very own universe. I got to harshly judge certain characters by reading someone’s narration, but then I got introduced to that same character’s story and was reminded that life is not always black and white, dummy.

I had my mind set at 3 stars, but as I’m writing this I think it deserves 4. I would also LOVE to see a mini series adaptation of this.

4-5 stars
Everyone in Banneker Terrace, Harlem has a story to tell whether it’s of despair or survival. It’s a large building of 25 floors and 300 apartments so there are plenty of tales to tell. Here the focus though is on eight residents whose stories and lives interconnect and you can hear their voices through the words and the colourful writing as they spring to life before your eyes. As a Brit it takes a while for me to understand the dialect and the slang and even if you don’t 100% get it you understand the gist!

This is a very impressive debut so accomplished is the writing that it’s clear this is an author who is going places. It is good to read something that is different from a perspective we don’t often hear. It’s a life of inequality, unfairness and lack of privilege but these are people who are doing their best. Their lives are not easy, they’re often messy and precarious especially as they try to make the rent and resist the gentrification that hangs over them all.

It is extremely powerful and emotional in places. It feels realistic, it’s insightful, incisive and thoughtful, peppered with humour. This is especially true of Mimi, a waitress who uses her initiative to make her rent (or not) and Mrs Dallas classroom assistant tells it how it is especially of new teacher Mr Broderick.

Although I enjoy all of the stories about the tenants the stand out for me is 12 year old Najee whose story is powerfully emotional especially as he struggles to express himself. This is one that leaves you with a lump in your throat. However, Mimi‘s story and Mrs Dollar’s are also exceptionally good. Perhaps the latter resonates as a former teacher myself, fully recognising the situations that she describes!

Overall, I recommend this one to anyone who wants to hear a new literary voice and read something that is a bit different.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to John Murray Press for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

So, from my understanding, this is written predominantly in AAVE, which I am personally unfamiliar with, so it was initially a challenge for me to settle into the book.

Vibrant characters however, that you can emotionally connect with as they struggle against the powers of gentrification and disenfranchisement while still embracing community, independence, and the positivity of living authentically.

It wasn't to my tastes, mostly because of my lack of experience with the vernacular and some of the story structure, but the stories are heartfelt and massively reflect the experiences of the working class and of people of colour.

We’re here to meet the residents of Banneker Terrace, a Harlem high rise that is facing gentrification. This is a community where the people are living on the margins of society, they’re certainly not living ‘The American Dream’.

The residents cover a range of age groups, but they all have one thing in common - they’re all just trying to get by. They have cookout’s with beer and wings, summertime with souped-up cars and bumpin music.
The effects of gentrification, (leading to eviction notices being served so that the new owners can hike up the rent), together with the personal challenges that most of the residents face, makes this is an even more worrying time for those already struggling to pay the rent, to make it through each month, when the month lasts longer than the money.

The author gives us great insight into how it feels to live in a community like Banneker Terrace, as he gives each of the residents a voice. They’re allowed to tell us their personal stories in their own words. On the face of it, you’d expect this to be a depressing tale as it covers topics such as inequality, poverty, and racism, to mention a few, but in fact there’s an abundance of humour, and most of all there’s hope, because without that there’s nothing. As a Brit living in the UK, I initially found the localised dialect a bit difficult to understand, but once I became more familiar with it, I enjoyed it. A great debut novel.

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Gentrification of poorer neighbourhoods. It's reached Harlem, and Banneker Terrace. The building has been sold, and the new owners ultimately want the sitting tenants out, so they can renovate and massively hike the rent.

But it's home to a community.

And these are their stories, their struggles

I like books about the people living in the same building... Usually, they are not just neighbours but also related, connected in one way or another, even though it doesn't look that way at the first glance. I like the feeling of a puzzle in these types of books. You read each chapter about each flat or person, or family.. and slowly put the pieces together. This book is realistic, and believable and makes readers think and rethink about people of Harlem, the stereotypes and what is beneath the surface. Once I managed through with dialect and mannerisms I am not used to (I am quicker to pick up Scottish slang or British dialect), it was a truly refreshing read.

Stories From the Tenants Downstairs tells the stories of the tenants of Banneker Terrace, a rundown Harlem apartment block. Each tenant is given a distinct voice in this meticulously constructed collection, often written in a vernacular which sings out from the page so that you can almost hear it. Sidik Fofana explores racism, ageism, poverty, inequality and the assumption of white superiority in stories which are often as funny as they're poignant. Each of the tenants’ backstories are satisfyingly fleshed out, many of them with ambitions and plans thwarted by happenstance or sometimes each other. For all of them, the urgency of making enough money to get by is a constant, made all the more so by the eviction notices served by a company intent on making a hefty profit from the sale of apartments some tenants have lived in all their lives. It’s an impressive collection, so confident and assured it’s hard to credit that it’s Fofana’s first.

A true masterclass in character writing.
Every story offers a fresh perspective, written in such a way that it truly feels like someone new. The sense of community is perfectly capped off in the final chapter whilst everything that comes before works perfectly to show the complex inner workings of each character.
I look forward to everything that's coming from (and for) Fofana.