Death of the Author: A Novel [Paperback]

2026 NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER
WINNER OF THE LIBBY AWARD FOR BEST SCIENCE FICTION
WINNER OF BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL, 2026 LOCUS AWARDS

THE INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Recommended byNew York Times Book Review•People•NPR •Rolling Stone•Los Angeles Times•Reader's Digest•and more!

“This one has it all.” — George R.R. Martin • “As delicious as it is disorienting.” — Zakiya Dalila Harris • “Suspenseful, timely, and heartfelt.” —People• “Mind-bending.” —New York Times Book Review

In this exhilarating tale byNew York Timesbestselling and award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor, a disabled Nigerian American woman pens a wildly successful Sci-Fi novel, but as her fame rises, she loses control of the narrative—a surprisingly cutting, yet heartfelt drama about art and love, identity and connection, and, ultimately, what makes us human. This is a story unlike anything you’ve read before.

The future of storytelling is here.

Disabled, disinclined to marry, and more interested in writing than a lucrative career in medicine or law, Zelu has always felt like the outcast of her large Nigerian family. Then her life is upended when, in the middle of her sister’s lavish Caribbean wedding, she’s unceremoniously fired from her university job and, to add insult to injury, her novel is rejected by yet another publisher. With her career and dreams crushed in one fell swoop, she decides to write something just for herself. What comes out is nothing like the quiet, literary novels that have so far peppered her unremarkable career. It’s a far-future epic where androids and AI wage war in the grown-over ruins of human civilization. She calls itRusted Robots.

When Zelu flSÆ