Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Zelu is the daughter of Igbo-Yoruba Nigerian immigrants. The odd one out of her high-achieving siblings, she has never found success in her writing career, and has just been fired from her job. Her family is complicated, especially when it comes to their treatment of her as a disabled woman. So she takes the risk that will define her life, to write a book VERY unlike her others. A science fiction drama about androids and AI after the extinction of humanity. And everything changes.
What follows is a tale of love and loss, fame and infamy, of extraordinary events in one world, and another. Told through the lens of her own experience, interviews with her family and friends, and sections of the book she has written, we’re taken on a journey watching Zelu’s life evolve, while lines between fiction and reality begin to blur.
Part family drama, part indictment on the publishing industry, sci-fi romp and literary criticism, this novel has echoes of Yellowface, Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow and Becky Chambers’ work, while feeling like something entirely new, a genre Okorafor has coined as Africanfuturism.
Playing on and criticising Roland Barthes’ idea that the author has ‘died’, so has no definitive control over a reader’s interpretation of their work, Okorafor writes a story within a story where creation flows both ways. Through Zelu’s mouthpiece, Okorafor says: “I have come to understand that author, art, and audience all adore one another.” – Soffi
Beartooth by Callan Wink
I’ve been a big Callan Wink fan since his short story collection, Dog Run Moon, which shot straight up there as one of the best I’ve ever read. So needless to say I’ve been eagerly anticipating this new novel for some time.
Beartooth follows two brothers, Thad and Hazen, who are struggling to make ends meet after the death of their father. Their house in the Montana wilderness is falling apart, and on top of that they have their father’s hospital bills to pay for, and their truck is on its last legs. So when a man known as ‘the Scot’ offers them a chance to make money on an illegal hunting job in Yellowstone National Park, they can’t afford to say no.
This novel doesn’t necessarily go the way you think it’s going to. You’d be forgiven for going into it thinking it’s a heist novel, or a survival story. It’s much more character driven and the plot is only a small part of the book. Perhaps the star of the show here, as is usually the case with Callan’s work, is the Montana landscape itself, and the way Callan brings it to life so vividly. I will always read everything Callan writes, and once again I can’t wait for more. – Emma