DEATH OF THE AUTHOR, by Nnedi Okorafor

In 2019, after Nnedi Okorafor had grown tired of being called an “afrofuturist,” she coined a new descriptor for herself on her blog: “africanfuturist.” Both terms concern the Black diaspora, Okorafor wrote, but africanfuturism is specifically rooted in Africa. “I needed to regain control of how I was being defined,” she asserted.

This urge to reclaim one’s own identity pulses throughout Okorafor’s new book, “Death of the Author,” a spellbinding novel that traces a Nigerian American woman’s quest for freedom and self-invention despite the social and cultural conventions that try to contain her. And Okorafor’s protagonist, Zelunjo Onyenezi-Onyedele, faces many conventions.

Zelu was born and raised in Chicago, the daughter of successful Nigerian immigrants. While her five siblings either have or are working toward distinguished high-paying professions, Zelu has a creative writing M.F.A. and is an adjunct professor at a university. She has also been in a wheelchair since an accident left her paraplegic at 12; as a result, “not much had ever been expected of her” by her family.

But Zelu is no wallflower — not in her ambition, and certainly not in temperament. Early on, we see her unceremoniously fired for harshly critiquing a smug white male student’s writing; soon after, she receives her 10th rejection on a novel she spent five years writing. She bears the heaviness of these setbacks for a time, but she has grown adept at shaking off the “beast” that is self-pity.

And she’s strong enough to start writing something new: a science fiction novel called “Rusted Robots.” Set in Nigeria after nearly all humanity has perished, leaving only automated entities in their wake, the book becomes “a world that she’d like to play in when things got to be too much, but which didn’t exist yet.” It also becomes an excellent source of income, earning Zelu a seven-figure three-book deal, a top spot on the best-seller list and even a Hollywood film option. The most life-changing opportunity, though, comes from Dr. Hugo Wagner, a mechanical engineer at M.I.T. “I can make you a robot,” he writes, explaining that he and his biomechatronics team have developed technology that could give Zelu robotic legs, or “exoskeletons.”