“Dear friends, are you afraid of
death?”
—Patrice Lumumba, first
and only elected
Prime Minister of the
Republic of the Congo
*Optioned for a film by producer
Kisha Cameron-Dingle, to be directed by
award-wining director
Wanuri Kahiu*
*WINNER OF THE 2011 WORLD
FANTASY AWARD for Best Fantasy Novel*
*WINNER OF THE 2012 KINDRED AWARD*
*A 2010
Locus
Award Finalist for Best Fantasy Novel*
*A
2010 Nebula Award Nominee*
*Winner of the 2010 RT
Reviewer's
Choice Best Book Award (Science Fiction)*
*A
Tiptree Honor Book*
*A 2010
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee: Best Fantasy*
*A Selection of the Amelia Bloomer Project 2011
List*
*A
Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2010*
*An Amazon.com Best Book of 2010*
*A Library School Journal Best Book of 2010*
*Finalist for a 2010 Black Excellence Award"
*A 2010 Nobbie Award winner for the Best Books of the Year*
*Concept art for
the WHO FEARS DEATH movie
by Kenyan painter
Yvonne Muinde*
READ
CHAPTERS 1 & 2 HERE
Who Fears Death
Reading Guide
READ
The Book of Phoenix (Excerpted from the Great Book)
(a short story inspired by Who Fears Death)
A fantastical,
magical blend of grand
storytelling.
-Publishers
Weekly
(starred review)
Beautifully
written, this is dystopian fantasy at its very best.
-The
Library Journal Review
(starred review)
Both wondrously
magical and terribly realistic.
-The
Washington Post
The book is an
untraditional fantasy novel; it actually features Black people in an alternate
reality that is set in the Motherland. It also skews more toward the Octavia
Butler end of the fantastical spectrum with believable, nuanced characters of
color and an unbiased view of an Africa full of technology, mysticism, culture
clashes and true love.
-Ebony Magazine
(Editor's Pick)
Her pacing is tight. Her expository sections sing like poetry. Descriptions of
paranormal people and battles are disturbingly vivid and palpable. But most
crucial to the book's success is how the author slowly transforms Onye's pursuit
of her rapist father from a personal vendetta to a struggle to transform the
social systems that created him.
-The
Village Voice
The subject
matter of this haunting tale is brutal, yet its words inspire hope...It is a story
that begs to be read in one sitting.
-The Christian Science Monitor
WHO FEARS DEATH is unlike anything this reviewer has
ever read...Okorafor is a master storyteller who combines recent
history, fantasy, tradition, advanced technology and culture into something
wonderful and new that should not be missed.
-RT
Reviews
(4 1/2 star, Top Pick, Gold Medal)
Written in a direct and uncompromising prose and driven by a passion and anger
only hinted at in the earlier novels, Okorafor’s first adult novel is easily her
best.
-Locus Magazine
Okorafor’s science fiction writing may have been
strongly influenced by Octavia Butler, but her writing style and dark thematic
approach are comparable to horror master Stephen King.
-The
Lansing City Pulse
The clear and sometimes lyrical prose pulls the reader along
and compels the reading of page after page. To compare author Nnedi Okorafor to
the late Octavia E. Butler would be easy to do, but this simple comparison
should not detract from Okorafor’s unique storytelling gift.
-The
New York Journal of Books
Nnedi Okorafor's new book will not help you sleep.
-anonymous
A Room of One's Own Bookstore
Indiebound
Dreamhaven Books
The King's English Bookshop
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Borders
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY PROFILE:
A Nigerian Sorceress Makes Her Way
THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES:
Okorafor's fantastic journey into sci-fi
Praise for Who Fears Death:
| "I love the way Nnedi
Okorafor writes, the precise, steely short sentences like blows to the
body, the accumulation of experiences that lead to inspired insights,
and the strangeness and beauty of an Africa both imagined and real.
Perception, courage, and grace illuminate WHO FEARS DEATH." "WHO FEARS DEATH is one of the most striking, chilling, truly fascinating, and all-around remarkable novels I've read in a very long time." -Peter Beagle, bestselling and award-winning author of The Last Unicorn, The Innkeeper's Song and many more fantasy books. "Nnedi Okorafor's WHO FEARS DEATH will transport you to a world that is different from ours yet all too familiar. Prepare to be drawn in, enlightened, and amazed. If the bulk of contemporary fantasy is sparkling water, then this is surely cognac." -Alan Dean Foster, bestselling and award-winning author of many many science fiction and fantasy books. "Nnedi Okorafor is American-born but her Nigerian blood runs strong, lacing her work with fantasy, magic and true African reality. Many people need to read WHO FEARS DEATH, it's an important book." -Nawal El Saadawi, bestselling and award-winning Egyptian feminist writer and activist, author of Woman at Point Zero "The voice of Nnedi Okorafor does not obey the rules of distance, time and place. Hers is that voice that fuses matter and imagination. WHO FEARS DEATH captures the substance of our necessary but often ignored realities. Read it." -Tchidi Chikere, Nigeria’s prolific award-winning film director and screenwriter "Nnedi Okorafor's got the cure for what ails you. Her books are fresh, original, and smart. We need more writers like her." -Patrick Rothfuss, bestselling and award-winning author of The Name of the Wind ""Her newest teaches us that we can and should look beyond labels and genres. She is in the passing lane now, and she is starting to pull away. Catch her now." -Luis Alberto Urrea, bestselling and award-winning author of The Hummingbird's Daughter and 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Devil's Highway. "WHO FEARS DEATH, is urgently topical, at times brutal, and always wholly original. It’s no surprise she’s been racking up awards. There are more to come, surely." -David Anthony Durham, bestselling and award-winning author of Acacia |
International award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor
enters the world of magic realist literature with a powerful story of
genocide in the far future and of the woman who reshapes her world.
In a
post-apocalyptic Africa, the world has changed in many ways, yet in one
region genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. After years of
enslaving the Okeke people, the Nuru tribe has decided to follow the
Great Book and exterminate the Okeke tribe for good. An Okeke woman who
has survived the annihilation of her village and a terrible rape by an
enemy general wanders into the desert hoping to die. Instead, she gives
birth to an angry baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand.
Gripped by the certainty that her daughter is different—special—she
names her child Onyesonwu, which means “Who Fears Death?” in an ancient
tongue.
From a young age,
stubborn, willful Onyesonwu is trouble. It doesn’t take long for her to
understand that she is physically and socially marked by the
circumstances of her violent conception. She is Ewu—a child of rape who
is expected to live a life of violence, a half-breed rejected by both
tribes.
But Onye is not the
average Ewu. As a child, Onye’s singing attracts owls. By the age of
eleven, she can change into a vulture. But these amazing abilities are
merely the first glimmers of a remarkable unique magic. As Onye grows,
so do her abilities—soon she can manipulate matter and flesh, or travel
beyond into the spiritual world. During an inadvertent visit to this
other realm she learns something terrifying: someone powerful is trying
to kill her.
Desperate to elude
her would-be murderer, and to understand her own nature, she seeks help
from the magic practitioners of her village. But, even among her
mother’s people, she meets with frustrating prejudice because she is Ewu
and female. Yet Onyesonwu persists.
Eventually her
magical destiny and her rebellious nature will force her to leave home
on a quest that will be perilous in ways that Onyesonwu can not possibly
imagine. For this journey will cause her to grapple with nature,
tradition, history, true love, the spiritual mysteries of her culture,
and ultimately to learn why she was given the name she bears: Who Fears
Death?