Skye Papers Lib/E

Twentysomething and restless, Skye flits between cities and stagnant relationships until she meets Scottie, a disarming and disheveled British traveler, and Pieces, an enigmatic artist living in New York. The three recognize each other as kindred spirits--Black, punk, whimsical, revolutionary--and fall in together, leading Skye on an unlikely adventure across the Atlantic. They live a glorious, subterranean existence in 1990s London: making multimedia art, throwing drug-fueled parties, and eking out a living by busking in Tube stations, until their existence is jeopardized by the rise of CCTV and policing. In fluid and unrelenting prose, Jamika Ajalon's debut novel explores youth, poetry, and what it means to come to terms with queerness. Skye Papers is an imaginative, episodic group portrait of a transatlantic art scene spearheaded by people of color--and of the fraught, dystopian reality of increasing state surveillance.

About the Author :
Jamika Ajalon is an author and interdisciplinary artist who incorporates written and spoken text, sound/music, and visuals. Her poems, stories, and essays have appeared in various publications internationally. Ajalon received an MA in communication in culture and society from Goldsmiths, University of London. She is based in London and Paris. Karen Chilton is a New York-based actor and writer and an accomplished voice-over artist and narrator. She has narrated dozens of audiobooks, won three AudioFile Earphones Awards, and in 2020 won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Nonfiction Narration. Her voice can be heard on numerous national network television, radio, and Internet advertising campaigns.

Review :
"Skye Papers is a story of becoming--part love story, part artistic path, part surveillance-state dystopia--from a wholly unique and necessary new voice." -- "Pamela Sneed, author of Funeral Diva" "Skye Papers is not only one of the most addictive reads of this year, it's a must reread to unlock the living labyrinths of loving madly, performing badly, and surviving oneself while daring to risk everything to experience a creative life beyond the fringes of expectation and limitation." -- "Malik Ameer Crumpler, poet, editor, and rapper" "[A] spectacular performance...Chilton's voice is chameleon-like...[and] Chilton's ability to fully embody each character makes listeners feel as though they are right there in the moment with Skye and her crew--as surprised by each new revelation as they are." -- "AudioFile" "[In] the rhythmic, riffing, incantatory prose...we get lost in a world that Ajalon renders with precision and lyricism that elude her main character." -- "New York Times" "A visceral narrative of artists of color, Jamika Ajalon's debut novel bursts forth with visionary aim." -- "Fork Burke, author of Licking Glass" "Though the novel is deftly plotted and full of well-rounded, interesting characters, the desperate anger of Skye and Pieces' relationship is meant to be abrasive, giving the book a jagged edge." -- "Kirkus Reviews" "Too real to be sci-fi, with a gritty imagination, Skye Papers merges race and class, queerness and anarchy, all while keeping a Philip K. Dick-ensian eye on the entities with the power to monitor and control our freedoms." -- "Michelle Tea, author of Against Memoir"