Sidik Fofana has written “Stories from the Tenants Downstairs.” This is his first novel and very much worth a reader’s time. His book is eight interrelated short stories written by residents of a fictional tenement in New York City in a neighborhood going through gentrification. You root for his characters. You identify with their aspirations. But for each of them it is so tough to realize their dreams. For each of them it is so tough to negotiate the realities of every day life. And Sidik knows from whence he writes—for years he has been a New York City public school teacher. Many of his stories, he tells us, come from his kids. “Stories from the Tenants Downstairs” is an excellent book. One small warning—a couple of the stories are written with the voice of the street, but were that not the case, it would not be as authentic. And every inch of this book is authentic. Our independent book store this week is Women and Children First in Chicago—we talk with one of its owners, Lynn Mooney.

Books mentioned in the podcast:

• Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fafana
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
• Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
• The Broken Earth Trilogy N.K. Jemisin
• “Harlem” by Langston Hughes from The Collected Works of Langston Hughes
• A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
• The Odyssey by Homer
• A Separate Peace by John Knowles
• Native Son by Richard Wright
• Trombone Shorty by Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews
• Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Johnson
• Oh William! By Elizabeth Strout
• Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself by Nedra Glover Tawwab
• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

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