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Also by Helen Oyeyemi:

A New New Me, September 2025
Hardcover / e-Book
Parasol Against the Axe, March 2024
Hardcover / e-Book
Peaces, April 2021
Hardcover / e-Book
Gingerbread, March 2019
Hardcover / e-Book
Gingerbread, March 2019
Hardcover / e-Book
Boy, Snow, Bird, March 2014
Hardcover
Mr. Fox, October 2011
Hardcover / e-Book
The Icarus Girl, June 2005
Hardcover

THE ICARUS GIRL
By: Helen Oyeyemi

?The Icarus Girl is an astonishing achievement.? ?Sunday Telegraph (London)

Nan A. Talese
June 2005
352 pages
ISBN: 0385513836
Hardcover
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Fiction | Contemporary

Jessamy “Jess” Harrison is eight years old. Sensitive, whimsical, possessed of an extraordinary and powerful imagination, she spends hours writing haiku, reading Shakespeare, or simply hiding in the dark warmth of the airing cupboard. As the child of an English father and a Nigerian mother, Jess just can’t shake off the feeling of being alone wherever she goes, and the other kids in her class are wary of her tendency to succumb to terrified fits of screaming. Believing that a change from her English environment might be the perfect antidote to Jess’s alarming mood swings, her parents whisk her off to Nigeria for the first time where she meets her mother’s family— including her formidable grandfather.

Jess’s adjustment to Nigeria is only beginning when she encounters Titiola, or TillyTilly, a ragged little girl her own age. To Jess, it seems that, at last, she has found someone who will understand her. But gradually, TillyTilly’s visits become more disturbing, making Jess start to realize that she doesn’t know who TillyTilly is at all.

Helen Oyeyemi draws on Nigerian mythology to present a strikingly original variation on a classic literary theme: the existence of "doubles," both real and spiritual, who play havoc with our perceptions and our lives. Lyrical, haunting, and compelling, The Icarus Girl is a story of twins and ghosts, of a little girl growing up between cultures and colors. It heralds the arrival of a remarkable new talent.

Media Buzz

Diane Rehm Show - NPR - December 30, 2005