Death of the Author

(Paperback)

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Description

The future of storytelling is here.

Disabled, disinclined to marry, and more interested in writing than a lucrative career in medicine or law, Zelu has always felt like the outcast of her large Nigerian family. Then her life is upended when, in the middle of her sister's lavish Caribbean wedding, she's unceremoniously fired from her university job and, to add insult to injury, her novel is rejected by yet another publisher. With her career and dreams crushed in one fell swoop, she decides to write something just for herself. What comes out is nothing like the quiet, literary novels that have so far peppered her unremarkable career. It's a far-future epic where androids and AI wage war in the grown-over ruins of human civilization. She calls it Rusted Robots.

When Zelu finds the courage to share her strange novel, she does not realize she is about to embark on a life-altering journey-one that will catapult her into literary stardom, but also perhaps obliterate everything her book was meant to be. From Chicago to Lagos to the far reaches of space, Zelu's novel will change the future not only for humanity, but for the robots who come next.

A book-within-a-book that blends the line between writing and being written, Death of the Author is a masterpiece of metafiction that manages to combine the razor-sharp commentary of Yellowface with the heartfelt humanity of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Surprisingly funny, deeply poignant, and endlessly discussable, this is at once the tale of a woman on the margins risking everything to be heard and a testament to the power of storytelling to shape the world as we know it.

Nnedi Okorafor, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author, presents a sweeping tale about family, culture and identity, and a breathtaking examination of the relationship between writer and reader. Death of the Author is heartfelt, tender, and an ambitious meta-drama about what makes us human.

Reviews

Don't be frightened by the title, Nnedi Okorafor is fine... and doing her best work yet. DEATH OF THE AUTHOR reads like three novels in one... or maybe four... about fame and family, culture and change, the power of story, the writer's life... and robots. This one has it all * George R.R. Martin *
Nnedi Okorafor is so ferociously talented that we are starting to see she cannot be boxed into any category or genre. Her new, Death of the Author, is a deeply felt dazzle. A blaze. It is true deep to the bones * Luis Alberto Urrea Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of The House of Broken Angels *

Author Bio

Nnedi Okorafor is an international award-winning New York Times bestselling writer of science fiction and fantasy for adults, young adults and children. The more specific terms for her works are africanfuturism and africanjujuism. Nnedi has received the World Fantasy, Nebula and Eisner and multiple Hugo, Lodestar and Nommo Awards, amongst others, for her works. She has books currently being adapted for TV by HBO, Amazon Studies, 20th Century Fox, and others. Nnedi holds a PhD in Literature, two Master's Degrees (Journalism and Literature) and lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her daughter Anyaugo.