Who Fears Death

By Nnedi Okorafor
(DAW Hardcover, Hardcover, 9780756406172, 304pp.)

Publication Date: June 1, 2010

Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Google eBook, Paperback, Mass Market Paperback, Compact Disc, Compact Disc, MP3 CD, MP3 CD, Compact Disc, MP3 CD

Categories: Fantasy - General

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the June 2010 Indie Next List

“Okorafor's latest novel, her first for adults, is a sharp, evocative story of a woman born of rape into a post-apocalyptic African landscape. Okorafor brings her considerable talent for ambiguous characterizations and grappling with difficult questions of morality and power in an unjust world. Her prose is musical and emotionally raw, and Okorafor's imagery brings the novel's rich magic and religion into vivid relief. Onyesonwu is a protagonist whose clear voice and brutally memorable story will stay with you long after you've finished.”

-- Gretchen Treu, A Room of One's Own Feminist Bookstore, Madison, WI

Description

Read Nnedi Okorafor's posts on the Penguin Blog.

An award-winning literary author presents her first foray into supernatural fantasy with a novel of post- apocalyptic Africa.

In a far future, post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, genocide plagues one region. The aggressors, the Nuru, have decided to follow the Great Book and exterminate the Okeke. But when the only surviving member of a slain Okeke village is brutally raped, she manages to escape, wandering farther into the desert. She gives birth to a baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand and instinctively knows that her daughter is different. She names her daughter Onyesonwu, which means "Who Fears Death?" in an ancient African tongue.

Reared under the tutelage of a mysterious and traditional shaman, Onyesonwu discovers her magical destiny-to end the genocide of her people. The journey to fulfill her destiny will force her to grapple with nature, tradition, history, true love, the spiritual mysteries of her culture-and eventually death itself.

About the Author

Nnedi Okorafor was born in the United States to two Nigerian immigrant parents. She holds a Ph.D. in English and is a professor at Chicago State University. She has been the winner of and finalist for many awards.

This book is on these lists:

Fiction 3 by mstephanos
Libertylad's Wish List by libertylad
Skelly's Wish List by skelly
Miamijes's Wish List by miamijes
Kiki14's List 2 by kiki14
Bones's Wish List by bones
Char's Wish List by char
Zoerulz's Wish List by zoerulz
F Int'l - Africa by Hazelthyme
Robbiewi's Wish List by robbiewi

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