Death of the Author: A Novel

by Nnedi Okorafor

Overview

"Her best work yet... 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

In this exhilarating tale by New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor, a disabled Nigerian American woman pens a wildly successful Sci-Fi novel, but as her fame rises, she loses control of the narrative—a surprisingly cutting, yet heartfelt drama about art and love, identity and connection, and, ultimately, what makes us human. This is a story unlike anything you’ve read before.

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. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063443679
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/14/2025
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	672
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.34(d)

About the Author

Nnedi Okorafor is the author of multiple award-winning and New York Times bestsellers, including the Binti trilogy, Who Fears Death, and Lagoon, currently in development at Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. She has won every major prize in speculative fiction, including the World Fantasy, Nebula, and Eisner Awards; multiple Hugo Awards; and the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. Born in Cincinnati to Igbo Nigerian immigrant parents, she now resides in Phoenix, Arizona, with her daughter, Anyaugo.

Editorial 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

“I was captivated by the story—and the many stories-within-the-story—of this ambitious, inventive tribute to the power of storytelling itself.”
— Nikki Erlick, New York Times bestselling author of The Measure

“Okorafor explores what it means to be human. . . . All-out Okorafor – her best yet.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Death of the Author explores . . . conservationism, Africanfuturism, and what a world without humans could look like. The focus on the near future and the issues that Zelu faces give the postapocalyptic Rusted Robots a greater urgency. Her desire to live life on her own terms will engage readers who love to watch protagonists grow. Highly recommended for fans of Octavia Butler, Nicky Drayden, and Tade Thompson. . . . [Okarofor’s] latest book-within-a-book will attract genre and literary fiction fans alike.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Nnedi Okorafor is so ferociously talented that we are starting to see she cannot be boxed into any category or genre. Her new novel, 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

"There’s more vivid imagination in a page of Nnedi Okorafor’s work than in whole volumes." — Ursula K. Le Guin

“[Her work is] irresistible to readers. Her nearly two dozen works of fiction have earned Okorafor a slew of honors—four Hugos, a Nebula, a World Fantasy Award. And a new generation of American storytellers who explicitly use their African heritage, history and mythology to inspire their work have followed in her wake, including Tomi Adeyemi, Ayana Gray, Jordan Ifueko and Namina Forna. . . . Connection is the heartbeat of Okorafor’s work.” — New York Times, 12 African Artists Leading a Culture Renaissance Around the World

“Absolutely brilliant. My heart and guts are all turned inside out.”
— John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars, on Who Fears Death

“It’s a cumulative narrative, a slow burn that builds in emotional urgency even as the scope of Okorafor’s worldbuilding bursts into something breathtakingly vast.” — NPR on Remote Control

“Suspenseful, immersive, and chillingly relevant. Another stunning feat of imagination from Nnedi Okorafor.”  — Leigh Bardugo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House, on Like Thunder

“Fresh, original, and smart. We need more writers like her." — Patrick Rothfuss, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Name of the Wind, on Akata Witch

“A compact gem . . . A visual, suspenseful ride.”
— USA Today on Binti

“Both wondrously magical and terribly realistic.”
— The Washington Post on Noor

"Okorafor’s writing is even more beautiful than I remember it . . . evocative and sharply elegant in its economy… This is crucial, necessary work."
— NPR, Amal El-Mohtar, on the Binti trilogy

From the Publisher