Reader Review: “Death of the Author”

by Ann E Beman: Zelu has always been a storyteller and she has always felt like an outsider in her Nigerian American family. A paraplegic since falling from a tree as a child, Zelu used to dream of flying among the stars, yet now she feels as if she’s ever falling. When the novel she’s been writing for 10 years gets its umpteenth rejection and she loses her adjunct professor job, she moves back in with her parents and lets herself fall under the thrall of a new inspiration.

A novel set in the future, wherein humanity is extinct and metal robots war with disembodied AI beings, Rusted Robots becomes a stratospheric success. Yet even as Zelu gains wealth and popularity, finally hitting her stride, she begins to lose control of the narrative. “I’ve been deleted from my own story,” she thought. “They’ve just erased me.”

Author Nnedi Okorafor has masterfully crafted a book within a book, interspersing chapters of Zelu’s story with chapters of the postapocalyptic Rusted Robots. Both books explore what it means to be human, and together they revel in the power of storytelling. Death of the Author manages to be both timely and timeless, with themes that include family, living in the margins, the writer’s life, race, culture, change, fame, shame, forgiveness, self-acceptance, and that “creation flows both ways.” The book’s title is genius.

Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.