Somewhere Soft to Land

By kai alonté
** Publication Date 21 April 2026 **
​4 stars




Certain stories are like a warm blanket. They wrap you up comfortably. Some stories are more like hiking through brambles. They tug at you and make you squirm. This novel has a bit of both, but it definitely more like the latter.


Dzifa has two names. Dzifa, which is supposedly her Ghanian name, her once home. Mercy is her Christian name. The one that makes people different from her more at ease. However, she prefers Dzifa.


She grew up mostly in Oakland in a big house with her mother, older sister Esther, but never her father. Though married, her parents are married in name and finances only. Her father is constantly absent. Esther mostly raises Dzifa. Their mother, more obsessed with appearances than care, is emotionally absent. Esther does her best to make sure Dzifa has what she needs. But when Esther leaves for college, it becomes too much. Dzifa is sent off to boarding school.


Eventually Dzifa lands at Elmwood college where she befriends Tatiana. Beautiful Tatiana, so full of self-love and confidence, the utter opposite of Dzifa. Dzifa always considers Tatiana her sister, her best friend. They remain close while living in New York City. They stay in touch when Dzifa escapes back to Oakland and Tatiana to her home in Boston. And when tragedy befalls Tatiana, Dzifa never thinks twice before boarding a plane to Boston to be with Tatiana.


But through it all, Dzifa is never really sure of her footing or her place in the world. She just seems to drift from one place to another, one job to another, never really living. At some point Dzifa will need to find her happiness, and maybe all this drifting is what finally brings her to make choices that will be in Dzifa’s best interest, not anyone else’s.


What a beautifully written piece of literature this was. While Dzifa is most definitely the primary character of the novel, Tatiana’s presence is never far from mind. Almost as though every thought Dzifa has is countered by Tatiana’s response to it. It is amazing to see Dzifa flounder through her younger years and start to finally come to terms with life a bit later. The journey is clearly one of self-discovery and growth, a journey we hopefully all make through young adulthood.


Not an easy novel, definitely rocky and tumultuous, but ultimately so satisfying.