The Girl Who Fell From the Sky

Durrow's novel was the Winner of the 2008 Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice. Inspired by a real event, this debut novel tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I., who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy after a fateful morning on their Chicago rooftop. With her strict African American grandmother as her new guardian, Rachel moves to a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring mixed attention her way. Growing up in the 1980s, she learns to swallow her overwhelming grief and confronts her identity as a biracial young woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white. In the tradition of Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is a moving portrait of a young girl—and society’s ideas of race, class, and beauty.