Big Girl

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE'As big, beautiful and complicated as living itself'Jacqueline Woodson, author of Red at the Bone 'I ate this up in one greedy, joyous gulp . . . Hilariously funny and quietly devastating'Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Patsy'What is a child's body worth when it is big, Black and female - when it is under constant demand to be something other than what it naturally is? In Mecca Jamilah Sullivan's achingly beautiful coming-of-age debut, Big Girl, this body carries the weight of an entire neighbourhood . . . Big Girl triumphs as a love letter to the Black girls who are forced to enter womanhood too early - and to a version of Harlem that no longer exists' New York Times'A thrilling, big-hearted novel'Chigozie Obioma, author of An Orchestra of Minorities'There are three books on earth that I would give anything to be able to write and reread until the sun burns us up. Big Girl is one of those books'Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy'As quietly revolutionary as Gwendolyn Brooks' Maud Martha or Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John. Resetting the conversation about girlhood, desire, bodies and appetites, this book is a revelation' Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of Libertie