Somewhere Soft to Land

A Novel

By: kai alonté

Narrated by: Emma Ladji

In this crackling portrayal of friendship in peril, a young woman’s world is upended when a tragedy in her best friend’s life tests the boundaries of their sisterhood—a sharp and compelling debut novel from a Ghanaian American writer.

Dzifa has always felt a bit off. Maybe it’s the family baggage, or maybe it’s just how she’s wired. Depleted by cycles of burnout, she lives in a perpetual state of bracing: for another lost job, another lost home, another piece of evidence she isn’t doing being right. If it weren’t for the encouragement—and occasional overstepping—of her magnetic best friend, Tatiana, Dzifa doesn't know if she’d have made it as far as she has. Despite their differences, the two women share a desire to be their authentic selves, and to shed the grip of the respectability politics they’ve been taught should govern their lives.

Just as each begins to find her way, the sudden passing of Tatiana’s child upends everything. Dzifa rushes to Tatiana’s hometown to help her friend prepare for the funeral. But when she arrives, Dzifa is immersed in an unsettling conflict between two diametrically opposed families, one of whom seems intent on seeding doubt about Tatiana’s capacity as a mother. When Tatiana asks her for the ultimate favor, Dzifa must choose between loyalty at the expense of her own well-being and authenticity at the expense of her most valued friendship.

A riveting exploration of sisterhood, what it means to mother and be mothered, and what it means to be well, Somewhere Soft to Land reckons with the sometimes funny, sometimes fraught friendship between women with divergent ideologies, aspirations, personalities, and paths.

Critic reviews

“This bracing first novel is an intimate and impassioned exploration of friendship, resilience, and the uneasy balance between loyalty and self-preservation. . . . alonté skillfully balances moments of quiet humor with a searing portrayal of love, grief, and respectability politics in Black women’s lives. Most striking is alonté’s tender yet incisive prose, rendering Dzifa’s search for belonging and authenticity deeply recognizable. This is a powerful debut that lingers well beyond its final page.”—Booklist

“Incisive debut . . . alonté does an excellent job illustrating the characters’ grief in the wake of tragedy, along with Dzifa’s heartfelt desire to support her friend. This will move readers.”—Publishers Weekly

“From rage to indifference to the illusory hope for reunification, alonté takes readers through the life cycle of toxic families with visceral realness, humanizing zillennials who are estranged not just from their families but also from their pasts as a whole.”—Library Journal