ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST FANTASY AND YOUNG ADULT BOOKS OF ALL TIME • A young Nigerian girl discovers her extraordinary destiny in this heart-pounding tale of finding one’s place in the world.
“Jam-packed with mythological wonders.”—Rick Riordan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series
“There’s more imagination on a page of Nnedi Okorafor’s work than in whole volumes of ordinary fantasy epics.”—Ursula K. Le Guin, award-winning author of A Wizard of Earthsea
Sunny Nwazue lives in Nigeria, but she was born in New York City. Her features are West African, but she’s albino. She’s a terrific athlete, but can’t go out into the sun to play soccer. There seems to be no place where she fits in. And then she discovers something amazing—she is a “free agent” with latent magical power. And she has a lot of catching up to do.
Soon she’s part of a quartet of magic students, studying the invisible and visible, learning to change reality. But just as she’s finding her footing, Sunny and her friends are asked by the magical authorities to help track down a career criminal who knows magic too. Will their training be enough to help them against a threat whose powers greatly outnumber theirs?
Nnedi Okorafor is a novelist of African-based science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism for both children and adults. Born in the United States to Nigerian immigrant parents, Nnedi is known for weaving African culture into creative evocative settings and memorable characters. In a profile of Nnedi’s work, the
New York Times called Nnedi’s imagination “stunning.” Nnedi has received the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award, and the Nebula Award, among others, for her novels. She holds a PhD in English and is a professor at SUNY Buffalo. She divides her time between Buffalo and the suburbs of Chicago, where she lives with her daughter.
“Okorafor’s novels tend to reflect both her West-African heritage and American experiences, but in this series she creates a stunningly original world of African magic that draws on Nigerian folk beliefs and rituals instead of relying on the predictable tropes of Western fantasy novels.”
—TIME
“There’s more imagination on a page of Nnedi Okorafor’s work than in whole volumes of ordinary fantasy epics.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin, award-winning author of A Wizard of Earthsea“The most imaginative, gripping, enchanting fantasy novels I have ever read!”
—Laurie Halse Anderson, National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Speak“I always loved science fiction, but I didn’t feel I was part of it—until I read first Octavia Butler, and now Nnedi Okorafor.”
—Whoopi Goldberg“Highly original stuff, episode after amazing episode, full of color, life, and death. Nnedi Okorafor's work is wonderful!”
—Diana Wynne Jones, award-winning author of The Chronicles of Chrestomanci“Jam-packed with mythological wonders.”
—Rick Riordan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series“Okorafor's imagination is stunning.”
—The New York Times Book Review“A marvelous and uplifting read, heartwarming in its portrayal of true friendship, heartbreaking in its portrayal of headstrong youth and the perils of pride.”
—Cory Doctorow, award-winning author of Little Brother“Fresh, original, and smart. We need more writers like her.”
—Patrick Rothfuss, author of The Name of the Wind“Nnedi Okorafor is opening doors into strange and beautiful new worlds. Her heroes are beguiling, her magic firmly rooted in real places and real things. Rich, mysterious, and convincing,
Akata Witch takes fantasy in a haunting new direction.”
—Jonathan Stroud, New York Times bestselling author of The Bartimaeus Trilogy“The voice of Nnedi Okorafor does not obey the rules of distance, time, or place. Hers is the voice that fuses matter and imagination. She shows us just how close we are to that alternate reality.”
—Tchidi Chikere, Nigerian award-winning film director and screenwriter
