Wonderful debut
'The Girl Who Fell From the Sky' is an achingly tender portrait of Rachel Morse, a half Danish, half African American girl growing up in the early 1980's. She has moved to Portland, Oregon to live with her grandmother after an unspeakable tragedy kills her mother and siblings. This tragedy is pointedly discussed by her relatives with regard to who is to blame, but for most of the novel Rachel does not reveal to the reader exactly what happened on that rooftop the day her family died. Instead, her life is consumed by the adjustment of having to "choose" a race, in opposition to the nebulous, half European lifestyle she lived previously that did not prod the issue.
I found Rachel's struggle to find herself convincing and incredibly moving. This is a slim novel, but it contains a huge load of emotion. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in coming of age stories, and anyone interested in American racial issues.
