and the Saboteur Awards, and longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Her debut novel, So Happy It Hurts, was shortlisted for a DIVA Rising Star Award.
Her new book is Bright and Dangerous Objects.
At Electric Lit, Mackintosh tagged seven modern fables about the challenges of caring for a child, including:
Who Fears Death by Nnedi OkoraforRead about the other entries on the list.
In a post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, two ethnic groups in Sudan are engaged in conflict. The light-skinned Nuru are guided by areligious text instructing them to enslave the dark-skinned Okeke people. Rebellion is met with slaughter. Onyesonwu is Ewu—neither light nor dark—because she is the child of an Okeke woman who was raped by a Nuru man. Furious at what happened to her mother, Onye embarks on a magic-fuelled quest for justice.
Dealing fearlessly with subjects including racism, weaponized rape, genocide, and female genital mutilation, Okorafor creates a frightening but beautiful read. Onyesonwu’s mother might have had little choice over her terrible fate, but her child’s fierce determination to make amends for this—and for all who suffer—is engrossing and extremely moving.
Who Fears Death is among Joel Cunningham's twenty sci-fi & fantasy books with a social justice message.
--Marshal Zeringue
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