I loved the first person perspective and the back-and-forth retelling of her journey from a child brought up in the desert to an adult with magical powers. This novel certainly grabbed me from the very beginning, a rather astonishing scene centred around the death of Onye's father when she is just 16. Along the way, she is supported by the love of her life, Mwita, and three female friends. We follow the story of Onyesonwu, the child of rape and a sorceress who is determined to put an end to the race-based conflict between the Okeke and Nuru people. We know it's the future because computers are relics and people rely on 'capture stations' to draw clean water out of the air. Who Fears Death is a dark, speculative novel set in Sudan at an unspecified point in the future.

As she grows, so do her abilities, and during an inadvertent visit to the spirit realm, she learns something terrifying: someone powerful is trying to kill her.ĭesperate to elude her would-be murderer and to understand her own nature, she embarks on a journey in which she grapples with nature, tradition, history, true love and the spiritual mysteries of her culture and ultimately learns why she was given the name she bears: Who Fears Death. Even as a child, she manifests the beginnings of a remarkable and unique magic. She is Ewu - a child of rape who is expected to live a life of violence, a half breed rejected by her community. It doesn't take long for Onye to understand that she is physically and socially marked by the circumstances of her conception. Gripped by the certainty that her daughter is different-special-she names her Onyesonwu, which means 'who fears death?' in an ancient language.

Instead, she gives birth to an angry baby girl with hair and skin the colour of sand. A woman who has survived the annihilation of her village and a terrible rape by an enemy general wanders into the desert, hoping to die. In a postapocalyptic Africa, the world has changed in many ways yet in one region genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. An award-winning literary author enters the world of magical realism with her World Fantasy Award-winning novel of a remarkable woman in postapocalyptic Africa.

Who fears death by nnedi okorafor