Big Girl

Mecca Jamilah Sullivan

From Shelf: A list of upcoming books by black, brown or ethnic minority writers. Recommended by @between2books

A brilliant debut from a hugely talented writer. Compelling and compassionate, Big Girl is an unforgettable portrait of a queer Black girl as she learns to take up space in the world. It's also a love letter to a community that is vanishing before the protagonist's eyes -Harlem in the 80s and 90s - its music, flavours and sounds.

A BBC RADIO 2 BOOKCLUB PICKSHORTLISTED FOR THE CENTRE FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE, THE GOTHAM BOOK PRIZE AND THE LAMBDA AWARD*'Absolutely incredible. Beautiful, powerful writing. These pages will stay with me forever' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS, author of QUEENIE*'A gift as big, beautiful and complicated as living itself' Jacqueline Woodson, author of RED AT THE BONE*'Hilariously funny and quietly devastating' Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of PATSY and HERE COMES THE SUN*'There are three books on earth that I would give anything to be able to write and reread until the suns burns us up. Big Girl is one of those books' Kiese Laymon, author of HEAVYA THING IS MIGHTY BIG WHEN TIME AND DISTANCE CANNOT SHRINK ITIt was a quote by Zora Neale Hurston. Malaya liked the words. The message was a mouthful of meaning, and it changed each time she read it. At first it had seemed ominous, but now she looked at it differently. She wondered for the first time if there could be something good about bigness, something mighty about not shrinking, after all. Growing up in rapidly gentrifying 90s Harlem, Malaya struggles to fit into a world that makes no room for her. She's funny, creative and smart, but all people see - even those who love her - is her size. At eight, she is forced to go to Weight Watchers; at twelve, her parents fear she'll be taken from them; by sixteen, a gastric bypass is discussed. On good days, Malaya braids bright colours into her hair, turns up Biggie Smalls on her Walkman, and strides through Harlem, his words galvanising her; on bad days, she doesn't leave her bed other than for furtive trips for the forbidden food that will comfort her - for a while. Big Girl is an unforgettable portrait of a queer Black girl as she learns to take up space in the world on her own terms.