Review: This One Sky Day by Leone Ross

Rating: 5/5 stars.  "Popisho was just too goddamned Popisho right about now." Welcome to Popisho, where metaphor becomes real and the real becomes metaphor. This One Sky Day is literary fiction at its absolute finest. We are introduced to the far, far away archipelago of Popisho, which seems to have a very Caribbean feel - although the word Caribbean is never mentioned, Ross preferring to preserve Popisho's mystery. The archipelago is populated by the offspring of, generations and generations ago, emancipated slaves and the indigenous population of Popisho. As much as Popisho is very deliberately isolated from the politics and various goings-on of the outside world (in fact, it could very much be a collection of islands in a mystical parallel world, like a tropical Avalon, if it were not for the very off-hand mention of Korea and Romania at around three-quarters in), this is important. "This was the dead language of their ancestors, wrenched to life in these throats; lost, found and streaming out of their mouths and down their lips. Singing through the thickening air. In each face she could see terrible compassion and sorrow." Through everything, Ross displays a fantastic undercurrent of humour of every shade imaginable: playful, witty, surreal, cutting, deadpan - and it works perfectly. She toes the line between comedy and tragedy, dancing through the shades of grey between and creating something that is so multifaceted, so complex, and so human. Although Popisho has the makings of paradise, the author does not for one second allow us to think that human nature is any different here than anywhere else. But here's where this novel differs from so many of the misery-drenched, melancholia-worshipping literary fiction books - the corruption and tragedy never quite manages to eclipse the sheer atavistic wonder both these islands and of the human condition. Yes, humans can be selfish, greedy, and their arbitrary hatred for that which is different can anchor into society, into conventions, into their very souls. But Ross also reminds us of the flipside: of how people can find wonder in everything, of the never-faltering curiosity and awe of the human species, and how there's always people who strive to right wrongs - and they aren't always doomed to failure. Sometimes, they can prevail. Sometimes, darkness doesn't win. There's so much more I can say about this novel, but I won't, because a large part of the beauty of this novel is having the intricately imagined world of Popisho unfurl in front of your eyes as the author intended. But I will say this: If this novel doesn't make it onto the Booker Prize longlist (at least), there's no justice in this world. This One Sky Day will be published on April 15. Amazon Affliate links: UK | US | DE