The sun rises on another day in the archipelago of Popisho, a place where the strange and fantastic are routine. Over the course of this single day, the lives of several of its residents will intertwine, and by nightfall, all will have given a gift but many will no longer be the same.
Leone Ross’s first novel, All the Blood Is Red, was longlisted for what was then the Orange Prize, her second, Orange Laughter, was chosen as a BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour Watershed Fiction favourite, and if her latest, This One Sky Day (Popisho in the US), a magical-realist tour-de-force fifteen years in the making, isn’t similarly nominated for awards it’ll be an understatement to say that I’ll be severely miffed.
Now, Magical Realism obviously has a proper, academic definition, but my personal, preferred one is: “strange things happen that the author doesn’t explain and the characters don’t question, therefore you shouldn’t either.” The main magical element of the novel is the fact that every resident of Popisho is born with a gift, known locally as “corrs”, something that’s uniquely their own. It can be something obvious, extra limbs (human or not) for example, or something more esoteric. Take the corrs of our three main characters: Xavier can flavour food through his palms; Anise is a healer, who can tell someone’s ailments at a touch and heals through the use of silver bubbles she produces from her body; Romanza can tell when people are lying, the lies actually causing him pain. From this comes all kinds of weird and wonderful things: an order of women whose job is to curate magic; consumable moths and butterflies with hallucinogenic properties; secrets that take on physical form; detaching body-parts; ghosts, and spontaneously occurring fruit that seems to induce a Wizard of Oz poppy-like sleep.
Like Mrs Dalloway, the plot takes place over a single day, the day before Sonteine Intiasar—daughter of Popisho’s Governor—is due to be wed. Xavier is not only a chef but the “maceanus”, a master chef whose duty it is to cook a meal for every single person in the archipelago, and who Governor Intiasar has manoeuvred into preparing his daughter’s wedding feast. Anise sets out to investigate her husband’s infidelity, Romanza (Sonteine’s twin) to unearth his father’s corruption. And while Sonteine is in love with her fiancé, she’s anxious about what comes next. These, and other, narrative strands constantly weave in and out of each other, taking what begins a very personal tale, intimate in scope, and expanding it to encompass much more: love, grief, addiction, prejudice, identity, political corruption, postcolonialism, sex and violence. But if this sounds like too many ingredients, don’t worry—rather than spoiling the broth, it all combines to make a rich, delicious stew, full of eye-popping flavour and colour (I promise the book itself contains better food metaphors.) Also, if it also sounds like it could be dangerously worthy, again, no fear—Ross is unafraid to be serious and sincere, yes, but she’s also delightfully unafraid of humour and moments of outright crudity.
All of this is conjured up through the most gorgeous prose—kaleidoscopic and sensual, it’s good enough to eat, and I’m not just referring to the descriptions of food—heavily influenced by Caribbean patios. Ross was born in England but grew up in Jamaica, and admitted that she deliberately included a lot of references just for Caribbean readers (‘Popisho’ for example, is a Jamaican expression, one of those that can mean different things depending on the context) but even if you don’t get all the references, you can definitely still get the emotional resonance of the story.
Funny, erotic, heartfelt, and full of characters who feel real despite the madness around them and who will stay with you for a long time, come and spend a day in the islands of Popisho, and celebrate the utter oddness and absurdity of life!
This One Sky Day is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Dawn breaks across the archipelago of Popisho, a world where magic is everywhere, food is fate, politics are broken, and love awaits. Everyone in Popisho was born with a little something… The local name for it was cors. Magic, but more than magic. A gift, nah? Yes. From the gods: a thing that felt so inexpressibly your own.
Somewhere far away– or maybe right nearby– lies an archipelago called Popisho. A place of stunning beauty and incorrigible mischief, destiny and mystery, it is also a place in need of change.
Xavier Redchoose is the macaenus of his generation, anointed by the gods to make each resident one perfect meal when the time is right. Anise, his long lost love, is on a march toward reckoning with her healing powers. The governor’s daughter, Sonteine, is getting married, her father demanding a feast out of turn. And graffiti messages from an unknown source are asking hard questions. A storm is brewing. Before it comes, before the end of the day, this wildly imaginative narrative will take us across the islands, their history, and into the lives of unforgettable characters.
