The Tiny Things are Heavier by Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo (Hardcover) (PREORDER)

Fiction - Literary - Coming of Age - African American & Black

RELEASE DATE: 6/24/2025 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER'S WAREHOUSE AND ARRIVE 1-2 DAYS AFTER THE RELEASE DATE)

“A gracefully told and sharply observed debut." -Kiley Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Such a Fun Age and Come and Get It

For readers of Americanah, a heart-rending debut novel about a Nigerian immigrant as she tries to find her place at home and in America-a powerful epic about love, grief, family, and belonging.

The Tiny Things are Heavier follows Sommy, a Nigerian woman who comes to the United States for graduate school two weeks after her brother, Mezie, attempts suicide. Plagued by the guilt of leaving Mezie behind, Sommy struggles to fit into her new life as a student and an immigrant. Lonely and homesick, Sommy soon enters a complicated relationship with her boisterous Nigerian roommate, Bayo, a relationship that plummets into deceit when Sommy falls for Bryan, a biracial American, whose estranged Nigerian father left the States immediately after his birth. Bonded by their feelings of unbelonging and a vague sense of kinship, Sommy and Bryan transcend the challenges of their new relationship.

After some time together, Sommy and Bryan visit the bustling city of Lagos, Nigeria for the summer break, where Sommy hopes to reconcile with Mezie and Bryan hopes to connect with his father. But when a shocking and unexpected event throws their lives into disarray, it exposes the cracks in Sommy's relationships and forces her to confront her notions of self and familial love.

A daring and ambitious novel rendered in stirring, tender prose, The Tiny Things Are Heavier is a captivating portrait that explores the hardships of migration, the subtleties of Nigeria's class system, and how far we'll go to protect those we love.

AUTHOR BIO: 

Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and a fourth-year PhD student in Creative Writing at Florida State University. Her works have appeared in Isele Magazine, Southeast Review, and Catapult. She's a recipient of the 2021 Elizabeth George Foundation Grant and a 2024 Torch Literary Arts Fellowship. Home for her is Lagos, Nigeria. She lives in Tallahassee, Florida.

"An incredibly moving portrait of a woman becoming. Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo has gifted us profound writing and an exquisitely-realized cast of characters." -- LaToya Watkins, National Book Award-nominated author of PERISH and HOLLER, CHILD

" The Tiny Things are Heavier is a brave, winning novel of contemporary migration, with all the collisions and losses, the transformations and conflicts it brings. Okonkwo's writing is confident, lush, embodied, and a joy to read. In her carefully-rendered and specific world, we touch, and are moved by, the universal.
" -- Sarah Thankam Mathews, National Book Award-nominated author of ALL THIS COULD BE DIFFERENT