This One Sky Day by Leone Ross

2/5 ✨

I really don’t know what to make of this book except that maybe it’s just not my cup of tea. Magical realism can be a bit hit or miss for me as a genre. I couldn’t work out what it was trying to get across, but it was definitely interesting and very unusual. This One Sky Day is set in one day across a set of fictional islands named Popisho, where all of the inhabitants have a special ‘cors’, a unique magical ability that no one else has, whether it be an extra arm, the ability to see lies, or to flavour things with your hands, everything and anything goes and nobody judges, as cors are a gift from the gods, and thus special. We follow around a few different residents as they go about their lives, all of them dealing with a particular problem. The day is extremely weird, lots of uncomfortable, bizarre things happen, which is apparently par for the course in Popisho.

In places the writing is rather poetic and lovely, but there were just so many unexplained bizarre things which happened, as far as I can tell
without reason - for example the exploding bird. I didn’t come to feel any particular engagement with the characters or the events. Maybe it was clever but personally I just didn’t get this one. For this who enjoy magical realism, however, I think this might resonate - The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende would be a good comparison. I did like that it tackled some big subjects such as addiction, however.

My thanks to #NetGalley and Faber and Faber for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

#bookstagram #bookreviews #ThisOneSkyDay #LeoneRoss #magicalrealism

"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 novel includes several interlinked stories set on the beautiful island of Popisho during the course of one day. . The inhabitants of the island all have individual ‘cors’ or magical talents and Leone’s in depth descriptions bring both them and their Island to life.
This book takes you on a journey of discovery covering deadly sins, redemption and love.
Beautiful.

I think this is a good book with an intriguing story but it wasn't for me. I don't get on with magical realism so even though I enjoyed the setting, style and characters and it's beautifully written I had to abandon it. Sorry.

Oh my god, I don't even know how to put into words how I felt about this book. Just stunning! Incredible! The prose was an absolute, sensuous, glorious joy. This is the kind of book that makes you fall in love with reading. A masterclass.

I love one day novels and ones made up of interlinked stories with mutual characters, so it was clear to me from the outset that I would adore This One Sky Day. It’s set in Popisho, an island community where just one of the irregularities is that almost everyone has a “cors” - a magical power or unusual bodily function - everything from being able to talk to cats to forming wings. Popisho is a surreal and confusing, but entirely complete, world built by Ross. The description of how the island came to be isn’t given until late in the novel though, and I would have personally liked to get that information up front so I wasn’t quite so confused at times. That said, this is a perfect example of magical realism. One character, Xavier, has a cors that can make food taste exactly right for each individual person, and so delicious food, as well as vivid plant and animal life, is a major theme that really helped to make it all seem real. I’ll be thinking about This One Sky Day for a long time.

Utter magic - literally; set on a tropical island where everyone has a ‘cors’ which is just a part of normal life. Such wonderfully portrayed people, relationships, human actions - I’ll definitely be reading more by this author

This book is quite a challenge to read. The language is sometimes hard to follow and the fractured sentences and magic realism/fantasy style add to the difficulty. I did find myself being drawn into the book but then losing my way a bit and had to reread some bits again. Some parts were quite bizarre and I wasn't sure what to make of them. Overall I did quite enjoy the book and think it's one I will have to reread with greater concentration. I might well give it a higher rating

How do I explain This One Sky Day? It's more of an experience than a read. You want to devour it yet savour it, let it linger on the tongue. This is something else.

Here we have magical realism, a feminist centre, a story that's moving, funny, a little gruesome, scary, bizarre. Hugely sensual, pretty sexually-charged. It's about race, sexual orientation, prejudice and inequality, women's bodies and sexuality, addiction, love and lust, heartbreak. Loss and friendship and gossip and memory.

The characters are incredible and so believable, even with magic: Xavier, the gods-chosen macaenus who knows how to cook people exactly what they need; Anise, healer and failed mother; Romanza, disowned son, shamelessly in love with a man and living in the bush; Sonteine, governor's daughter, Romanza's sister and soon-to-be-wed; and so many more. So MUCH more. This is a book about power and how it is distributed, and how it can be reclaimed. It is astonishing in so many ways. Exquisite.

A Celebration of Words, Bodies, Living, Women, Men

Leone Ross with her magic reality grabs our realities, our regrets, sorrows, griefs, loving, choices and takes a deep look at them. While she infuses them with her fantastical words, they remain our reality. How different persons see the same person differently, how they love or not love that same person differently. Zeb's view of Nya was so lovingly written, such a poignant moment.

Ross continues giving us contrasts throughout the story, men - women, enslaved - indigent, right - wrong. She also examines different gifts, blessings we are given and by putting a light on them she values what we might in our busy world discard.

All in all I loved the strength and joy she painted with her words and I'd love to taste more.

<i>An ARC gently given by author/publishers via Netgalley.

Sparkling and sensual.

On the mythical island of Popisho everyone has a magical gift, known as 'cors'. Still in mourning for his wife, Xavier yearns for his former potential acolyte, Anise. In turn, she is chronically unhappy following multiple miscarriages. When she hears rumours her husband is having an affair, she goes in search of the truth.

Taking place within one day, the novel encompasses sexuality, politics, magic and mischief.

Ross's writing is wonderfully imaginative and effervescent.

The italics give the text a crazy paving appearance, which detracts from the original and sumptuous storytelling

A feast for mind and body.

My thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber Ltd. for the ARC.

Taking place over the course of 1 day in an archipelago of islands where everyone has a cors, or magical power, this is an odd mix of a book. The premise is intriguing and parts of it were fantastic.

Unfortunately, I found the broken, spoken word style of writing disjointed and I was having to concentrate too hard on the way it was written to fully sink into the story. I also wasn't taken with the storyline of the 'pumpums' (vulvas). It didn't see to have a message within the context of the book. On the other hand, I could see and appreciate the parallels with colonisation and the treatment of indigents within the novel. I would also have liked to see a little more on Xavier's investigations in the hunger that people on the island were experiencing.

I don't know if this book was just unfortunate in being read during a reading slump or if it just wasn't my cup of tea. Either way it was good, but not amazing.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc.

It feels a somewhat incongruent experience to finish reading This One Sky Day and have to leave the fictional archipelago Popisho, brimming in life and warmth to come back to a frost and snow ridden UK. I have never experienced reading a book quite like it and I was transfixed from the very start.
This One Sky Day is filled with sensual imagery: the sounds of the islands, the descriptions of the taste of food and colour were extremely vivid which made the reading experience unique. It felt throughout that the landscape and its beauty was a preoccupation within the text. A place that can inspire admiration but can also change suddenly to something ominous and threating made the setting particularly vivid and compelling.
The characters too all felt immediate and complex. The story centres around a single day in the lives of the Popisho community focussing primarily on Xavier and Anise. It is an exploration of how they, both in their separate ways, are dealing with trauma and attempting to reconcile it with their present day lives and contexts. Even though we are asked to focus on the relationship of these two central protagonists, other characters have stayed with me after reading it. The young Romanza Intisiar, an outcast of the society, but more in tune with his surroundings, felt particularly well drawn. A section of the text dedicated to the meeting and development of the relationship between Romanza and Xavier felt to be particularly poignant. How they were both marked by the occasion but at the same time were able to learn something about themselves illustrating ideas of acceptance and understanding.
Magic too plays a central part within the novel, each character has Cors, a special gift that sets them apart. The exploration of this in relation to character motivation and its impact on the community made me laugh on so many occasions but it also felt incredibly heartfelt and touching at others. The ability to strike this balance makes me so excited to read more by Leone Ross

Convoluted magical realism. Xavier runs a restaurant called the Torn Poem on the Popisho Islands. In this culture, people dying alone are doomed to wander as decomposing ghosts. Xavier's wife was alone when she died and we feel his grief over this. The vivid description of his beautiful cliff-top garden and the view he sees from it make you feel you are there with him. Xavier's interactions with his family, particularly at his wife's burial ceremony, show how much he is valued. He is a Macaenus, but we don't discover what this means for a long time, which is frustrating. The writing style, with its fractured sentences and many paragraphs in italics, made the story difficult to follow, so I failed to finish it.

Truly a magical book to savour. On a sentence level, the writing is sharp, witty and beautiful in a way that feels effortless to read. The story unfolds at its own pace always offering up some new intriguing character or tidbit of information to the reader. At its heart a love story, one between people, but always between a people and their country, their land, their food, their sea, their sky.

This was a completely sumptuous, sensory banquet of a read. Initially I was unnerved by how long the book was, but 100 pages in, I was grateful because I didn't want it to end.

The characters are funny, warm, flawed. The descriptions are so vivid and I especially loved those of food. I loved Popisho. I loved the magic. I felt invested in each of the storylines, and the resolutions felt satisfying.

This One Sky Day was so immersive, and vibrant, and warm. It felt like perfect escapism for lockdown. That said, I will definitely reread because Popisho is somewhere I want to visit multiple times. This book is delicious. I would highly recommend.

This one sky day is truly unique. Its story is told from many viewpoints.
Initially, the story unfolds with a death, a man is grieving for his wife. Xavier Redchoose is a Macaenus - I interpreted this to be a chef - but with further reading, I learned that Xavier has cors (magic powers) and his cors is that he can flavour any food with his hands - he uses his cors in his restaurant - the Torn Poem to make food for the diners of Popisho - where they are fed exactly what they need, rather than what they desire - when the time is right for them.

Anise is a healer,she knows what ails a person by placing her hands on them but she is unable to carry children to full term.
Sonteine - the governor's daughter is due to marry - her cors doesn't show itself until almost the end of the story. She also has an her estranged twin who lives on an island full of indigent people.

The theme of female sexuality runs throughout this book. A major development in the story is when the adult females on the island find that their pum-pum (i had to look this up) fall out of their bodies.

A storm is brewing on Popisho, who is the orange man, what is Sonteine's cors, will Nya ever show herself?

I wasn't quite sure I understood this - it is told in a very quirky way and following the threads of what is happening is difficult. It is a fantasy, magical place where the people have weird talents , such as being able to flavor food, change colors or detect illness (and cure it). There is a clan of elder women who reveal your talent (witches?). There is a lot of interest in body parts and there is a hilarious scene in the middle where women's vaginas drop off and the leader of the country bans sexual intercourse for twenty four hours. (these two events are not cause and effect). But I found it too impenetrable and I did not have the stamina to face more of the same (it is a very long book)., so I did not finish it.

A gripping read that perfectly balances the vibrant fantasy world Ross has created with the intricacies of human life and interaction. The characters unfold their complexities and motivations alongside the readers discovery of the various ways in which the world of the book differs so greatly from our own.
A truly wonderful read, great for anyone who wants to break out of the everyday but still wants to read about authentic human connection.

I don’t want to say too much about the detail of this book because immersing yourself in this world and slowly understanding what is happening around you is one of the biggest treats this novel offers. A magic realist novel set over the course of one day in the island nation of Popisho, this is the most sensuous, lyrical novel I have read in a very long time - the kind of novel you desperately want to see filmed but to which film could never do justice.

It’s a love story, it’s a political satire, it’s a novel about addiction and it’s a stunning example of post-colonial writing combined with beautiful imagery and a playfulness with language that I absolutely loved. I couldn’t put it down and I will be recommending it to everyone once it’s published next year.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Faber for the ARC, this has just jumped to the top of my list of best novels of 2020 and I can’t wait to buy copies of it for everyone I know next year.