bookshy: Nnedi Okorafor

A couple days ago I shared some very exciting news on my personal Facebook page - about Nnedi Okorafor's forthcoming Marvel comic 'Blessing in Disguise'. The headline courtesy of BBC stated that it was the 'First Nigerian superhero to be published by Marvel'.

This headline led to quite an interesting discussion - which begun as a result of a comment which seemed like outright shock that BBC would claim this to be the first Nigerian superhero to be published by Marvel. This led to other names being added to the thread including Shango who appeared in 1982 (as a hero).

So, in my ever inquisitive (many may call it nerdy) way I decided to look into this some more and focus on Nigerian characters in Marvel. Of course, those who are more in the know, please do add to this. Also, this is not to take away from what is pretty amazing news - that Nnedi Okorafor is writing an 8-page comic set in Lagos as part of Marvel's Venomverse anthology.

To begin with, according to the Marvel Database, it seems that Nigeria (the country) made its first appearance in the Marvel Universe in March 1974 (Captain America Vol 1 #171). In terms of characters, one of the earliest appearances of a Nigerian character would have been the god, Shango - in Thor Annual #10 (1982) where he was recruited by Thor to confront Demogorge. It doesn't seem like there were any other Nigerian characters until Leo (K'Beer Okoye) who first appeared in New Warriors Vol 4 #4 (November 2007), followed by Imo Miri whose only appearance was in Thunderbolts International Incident Vol 1 #1 (April 2008).

All images via Marvel Database

Then there's Oya (Idie Okonkwo) - a fourteen-year old living in Oyo who accidentally burned down her village and killed her family. Her first appearance was in Uncanny X-Men #528 (November 2010).

All images of Idie Okonkwo via World of Black Heroes

... and now, there's Ngozi. Looking at these four other characters I do wonder if it isn't that Ngozi is the first Nigerian superhero to be published by Marvel, but that she is the first Nigerian superhero to be written/created by a Nigerian-American woman that is published by Marvel. For instance, the Marvel Database states that Oya was created by Matt Fraction and Kieron Gillen; while Shango was created by Alan Zelenetz and Mark Gruenwald. I have no idea!! Comic fans and experts out there, please let me know.

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It's no secret that I love Nnedi Okorafor, and even less of a secret that I judge book covers (broken record, much!). Well, towards the end of 2016, Nnedi Okorafor shared the covers for US editions of the Akata Witch Series - both the new look for the paperback of Akata Witch, as well as for her forthcoming Akata Warrior. The first I thought when I saw them, was, 'What a powerful image!'

They were illustrated by Greg Ruth, who writes openly about this being 'one of the most challenging and exciting exercises in book cover making'. The post not only shares the initial version of the Akata Warrior cover, but touches on art, race and racial awareness, cultural sensitivity and more. As Ruth writes:

We often in art mistake race for colour, and what this taught me was a way to skip past those initial assumptions and get right to the heart of her structure rather than her tone. This meant a lot of research into what physical features are distinctly Nigerian, and bringing those to bear on this young woman. She had to, without leaning on skin colour, be authentically Nigerian and herself as a true native of her culture in every bit as much the same way in which I might need to address and accomplish the same for a Cambodian scientist, or an Icelandic luthier.

I absolutely loved the honesty in the post, and the self-awareness of Ruth's whiteness and need to be both racially and culturally sensitive to the art and depiction of Sunny - her Nigerianess, her youth and her albinism. That a powerful young woman is front and centre on a book cover, is also a beautiful thing to see.

Final graphite drawing of 'Akata Witch'. Image via Muddy Colors.

Final graphite drawing of 'Akata Warrior'. Image via Muddy Colors.

But then again, women (whether young or older) have always been central to Okorofar's works and have always been a a focal point on her covers. This can be seen in the beautiful German editions of Lagoon, Who Fears Death and The Book of Phoenix - which were also illustrated by Greg Ruth. It's even clear in Ruth's use of the term 'powerful central women' to describe his portraits of the three female protagonists in the respective books. Ruth also shares the process of illustrating these three book covers for Cross Cult in Germany. And because I am all about powerful women, here they are:

For 'Lagoon'. Illustration by Greg Ruth. Image via Muddy Colors.

For 'The Book of Phoenix'. Illustration by Greg Ruth. Image via Muddy Colors.

From 'Who Fears Death'. Illustration by Greg Ruth. Image via Muddy Colors.

Of course, Greg Ruth is not the only illustrator or artist that has collaborated with Nnedi Okorafor. There's David Palumpo, a freelance illustrator who provides 'genre themed artwork' and whose art is on Binti and Binti: Home. While the final version of Binti is below, on Muddy Colors, Palumpo shares some of the original sketches.

Final version of Binti. Illustration by David Palumpo. Image via dvpalumpo.com

Again women are front and centre on these covers, and Nnedi Okorafor also recently shared on her Instagram page a photo of Palumbo painting the art for Binti: Home. It's pretty cool to be abel to see the cover being created.

Photo via Nnedi Okorafor's Instagram page

Even the UK editions of Lagoon and The Book of Phoenix (both illustrated by Joey Hi-Fi), which also depict events happening on the cover - are designed in a way that draws your eyes straight to the female creatures.

It's a truly beautiful thing seeing such striking images of powerful women on the covers of books.

Update: Since publishing the post, Nnedi Okorafor shared the final covers of Akata Witch and Akata Warrior on Twitter, stating that 'last minute juju was applied to the colours & font.' Loving the fun new colours and font - makes the covers even better (and the ones posted earlier were already gorgeous).

Book covers via Nnedi Okorafor's Twitter page

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I haven't kept it a secret on this blog, I love book covers and design and illustrations - so much so I spent last October (my dedicated Naija month) celebrating Nigerian book covers and illustrations. Well, with the forthcoming release of the UK edition of Nnedi Okorafor's Akata Witch (titled What Sunny Saw in the Flames), I wanted to celebrate the fan art I've stumbled across over the last couple of years celebrating the main character in the book - Sunny.

The US, Nigerian and UK covers

When I first read Akata Witch, I found it to be such a refreshing book, especially for someone who grew up reading and loving YA fantasy like Harry Potter. I was 13 the summer my mum came home with the first 3 books in the series (back then I had no idea what a great journey I was in for) and I fell in love instantly. To follow Sunny's magical education and training was absolutely fun, and her mission - along with the other magicians in the quartet - had me geeking out on many levels. Similar to Nnedi Okorafor's other YA novel, Zahrah the Windseeker, as I read I knew that the 13-year-old me who was reading Harry Potter would have loved to have read Nnedi Okorofar's books at that age.

Another thing that stood out for me when reading Akata Witch was Okorafor's portrayal of Sunny, a young albino teenager, without adopting the negative stereotypes often associated with albinism in literature. Indeed, while there are many novels with characters with albinism in them (e.g. Silas in The Da Vinci Code - religious fanatic/assassin) the most common depiction is often that of myths, danger and terror, and of villainous people - the hitman, assassin, sociopath or crime boss. Within African literature, a few cases I can think of with albino characters briefly mentioned in the story includes Ben Okri's Famished Road, where spirit albinos are mentioned a couple of times. There's also the albino wife that is brought home to the village in Buchi Emecheta's The Moonlight Bride.

Yet, here was Sunny:

'I'm albino and I've known it all my life ... My hair is still light yellow, my skin is still the colour of "sour milk", and my eyes are still light grey-green like God ran out of the right colour. And I still hate the sun, too.'

Although I have to say, since I read Akata Witch, another book that doesn't fall solely on negative stereotypes is Petina Gappah's The Book of Memory. It follows Memory, an albino woman convicted of murder and sentenced to death, who writes her memories and her emotional and physical experiences of being an outsider. Gappah who 'wanted to say something about race without really saying anything about race' has explained why she chose to write about an albino character.

Sunny, as Okorafor once explained in a post, was inspired by the nine-year-old daughter of one of her mother's friends, who she spent a week with when she visited Nigeria, who has:

' ... a wonderfully strong personality. And she happened to be albino. She was paler than most white people and had blonder hair, yet she was as Igbo and nappy-haired as anyone in her family.

She loved to make jokes and one day she just went off on a diatribe about the discrimination she experiences in Nigeria because she was albino. After that week, I knew I'd write about her. I'd been kicking around an idea about Nigerian kids and magic and she fit right into the story.'

And it's clear that fans of Nnedi Okorafor, and specifically Akata Witch, have resonated with Sunny - with a number of fan art it has inspired:

This one is from Danielle George who wanted to draw both Sunny and her spirit face.

This one's from Carey Pietsch

This one is from @Adxnna

This one's from That Gets My Goat

This one is from A-Nola of Sunny's new juju knife

This one from V. Martin goes beyond Sunny to include the magical quartet of magicians.

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Up next in my literary celebratory posts is a children's book I am extremely excited about. Nnedi Okorafor's, Chicken in the Kitchen, might be a picture book for children between the ages of 4 - 8, but it is an absolute joy to read - even for older readers.

Published by Lantana Publishing, an independent publishing company 'committed to addressing the widespread lack of cultural diversity in children's publishing in the UK', Chicken in the Kitchen introduces the reader to an enchanting world in which there is a magical chicken, a nature spirit and a pretty courageous little girl who in the middle of the night decides to investigate after being awoken by a noise.

On her blog, Okorafor gives us some insights into the origin of the chicken - this is one of two stories Okorofar used to read to her then three year-old daughter who wanted her mum to 'make some [stories] up just for her'. I really love how Okorafor also explains the story as one that is 'full of nonsense, magic, mischief, culture, spirits and there's a giant dramatic chicken in it'.

Chicken in the Kitchen works for a number of reasons - one is Okorafor's imaginative words, which truly transports you into a world of mystery and magic (I mean what more do you need for an awesome late-night adventure?). We also learn about the New Yam Festival and get introduced to masquerade culture.

Another strength of this book are the breathtaking illustrations by Iranian-British illustrator, Mehrdokht Amini's, which magnificently captures this amazing late night adventure. From the shadow lurking in the night while Anyaugo lay in bed, the giant chicken in the kitchen and the chaos it was causing, to the mischievous wood wit, Amini really and truly brings Okorafor's words and characters to life in a magical way. Amini certainly has a fan here and I adore her gorgeous work.

It really is wonderful to see such a superbly illustrated book for all children to enjoy ... and as I am celebrating art in Nigerian literature this month, here's a glimpse at Amini's illustrations for this delightful story.

Isn't it lovely?

Images via Lantana Publishing

Mehrodkt Amini has worked on many children's books, and her art is so exquisite, so definitely check out the rest of Amini's work on her website. Also, Lantana Publishing's Pinterest page let's us take a look at the cover illustrations and inside pages of their picture books for children, and they are oh so gorgeous!

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This year already, the world of African Speculative Fiction has seen the release of Nnedi Okorafor's The Book of Phoenix, Sarah Lotz's Day Four, Terra Incognito, Jalada's Afrofutures, and Eugene Odogwu's In the Shadows of Iyanibi courtesy of BrittlePaper to name a few. Well, here are some more works - including a novella from Nnedi Okorafor and Cristy Zinn's 'speculative fiction for children and other humans'. Enjoy!!!

The Raft by Fred Strydom (Published by Umuzi, April 2015)

One man's odyssey across a world without memory

"The day every person on earth lost his and her memory was not a day at all. In people's minds there was no actual event ... and thus it could be followed by no period of shock or mourning. There could be no catharsis. Everyone was simply reset to zero."

On Day Zero, humankind collectively lost its memory. The collapse of civilisation was as instantaneous as it was inevitable. For a man named Kayle Jenner, confined by a regime to a commune on a remote beach, all that remains is the vague and haunting vision of a son ...

That, and a wooden raft. It is a raft that will set Kayle on a journey across a broken world to find his son.

Braving a landscape of elusive encounters, a maze of other people's dreams, and muddled memories, Kayle will discover more than just his lost past. He will discover the truth behind Day Zero – a truth that makes both fools and gods of men.

The Dreamer's Tears by Cristy Zinn (Fox & Raven, April 2015)

Ivy Bauble is about to become Apprentice to the Master of Transformation. Never mind that she's far too obsessed with Knightmares for her own good, or that she's not sure if she can trust Master Borinvere and his brooding ward, Declan.

But when the magical Tower fails to transform and protect the peaceful village of Newton, Ivy has her hands full with more than just the annoying Declan and her sketchbook full of Knightmare drawings. Those dark, dangerous beasts are all set to fly into Newton and destroy everything Ivy holds dear.

And of course, Ivy is the only one who can stop all of this.

Swept up into an adventure with hot air balloons, magical wells, tickering cars and dreadful, fire-breathing horses, Ivy Bauble's life is about to change forever. And all because of Ivy's unending curiousity.

Dub Steps by Andrew Miller (Published by Jacana Media, May 2015)

Winner of the Dinaane Debut Fiction Award (formerly the European Union Fiction Award), Dub Steps has a strange long aftertaste. It is science fiction with ordinary characters trying to understand what it is to be alive. People have gone, suddenly, inexplicably, and the remaining handful have to find each other and start again. In that new beginning they wrestle with identity, race, sex, art, religion, and time, in a remarkably realistic, step-by-step way.

Nature comes back, Johannesburg becomes wonderfully overgrown, designer pigs watch from the periphery walls, and the small group of survivors have to find ways of living with their own flaws and the flaws of each other. The aftertaste comes from the surprisingly real meditations in the middle of the end: after all simulated reality has gone, what human reality is left? There are no clichés in this book, but there is plenty of humour, originality and a gripping, unusual interrogation of the ordinary but really extraordinary fact of being alive.

Tracer by Rob Boffard (Published by Orbit, July 2015)

In space, Every. Second. Counts.
Our planet is in ruins. Three hundred miles above its scarred surface orbits Outer Earth: a space station with a million souls on board. They are all that remain of the human race.

Darnell is the head of the station's biotech lab. He's also a man with dark secrets. And he has ambitions for Outer Earth that no one will see coming.

Prakesh is a scientist, and he has no idea what his boss Darnell is capable of. He'll have to move fast if he doesn't want to end up dead.

And then there's Riley. She's a tracer - a courier. For her, speed is everything. But with her latest cargo, she's taken on more than she bargained for. A chilling conspiracy connects them all.

The countdown has begun for Outer Earth - and for mankind.

Under Ground by S.L. Grey (Published by Panmacmillan, July 2015)

Under Ground is a page-turning locked-room mystery from the combined talents of Sarah Lotz and Louis Greenberg, written as S.L. Grey. It is perfect for fans of Under the Dome by Stephen King and films such as The Hole and The Descent (with a pinch of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie).

THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE SAFE ...

The Sanctum is a luxurious, self-sustaining survival condominium situated underground. It's a plush bolt-hole for the rich and paranoid - a place where they can wait out the apocalypse in style. When a devastating super-flu virus hits, several families race to reach The Sanctum. All have their own motivations for entering. All are hiding secrets.

But when the door locks and someone dies, they realise the greatest threat to their survival may not be above ground - it may already be inside ...

Binti by Nnedi Okorofar (Published by Tor.com, September 2015)
Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at

Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself - but first she has to make it there, alive.

Read an excerpt from Tor.com. And here's another one from Nnedi Okorafor, and illustrated by Mehrdokt Amini, for the kids.

Chicken in the Kitchen by Nnedi Okorafor and Mehrdokt Amini (Published by Lantana Publishing, October 2015)

What would you do if you woke up one night to find the shadow of a giant chicken passing your bedroom door? Go and investigate of course! When Anyaugo follows a giant chicken into her kitchen one warm night in Nigeria, she embarks on a hilarious adventure where nothing is quite as it seems. Is the nature spirit that lives in the wooden walls of her house a help or a hindrance? Is the mischievous giant chicken a friend or a for? Most importantly, will Anyaugo be able to save the food her aunties have cooked for the New Yam Festival the next day?

World Fantasy Award-Winning author Nnedi Okorafor provides us with a hugely entertaining look at the fascinating masquerade culture of West Africa, told from the perspective of a plucky young Nigerian girl who finds courage to protect the traditions she loves.

And head straight to Lantana Publishing to check out the amazing illustrations by Mehrdokt Amini, accompanying Okorafor's magical words.

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I am so excited about this post. 2015 hasn't even begun and already here are ten new releases to look forward to in the first five months. Looks like it's going to be yet another exciting year!!!!!

A Man of Good Hope by Jonny Steinberg
January 2015

South African writer and scholar, Jonny Steinberg, is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including Midlands and The Number which both won South Africa's premier non-ficiton literary award, the Sunday Times Alan Paton Prize. He is currently a lecturer in African Studies and Criminology at the University of Oxford.

A Man of Good Hope, published by Jonathan Cape, takes a powerful look at the impact of the Somali civil war on one man, who having lost everything, refused to give up hope.

When Asad was eight years old, his mother was shot in front of him. With his father in hiding, he was swept alone into the great wartime migration that has scattered the Somali people throughout the world.This extraordinary book tells Asad's story. Serially betrayed by the people who promised to care for him, Asad lived his childhood at a sceptical remove from the adult world, living in a bewildering number of places, from the cosmopolitan streets of inner-city Nairobi to towns deep in the Ethiopian desert.

By the time he reached the cusp of adulthood, Asad had made good as a street hustler, brokering relationships between hardnosed Ethiopian businessmen and bewildered Somali refugees. He also courted the famously beautiful Foosiya, and married her, to the astonishment of his peers. Buoyed by success in work and love, Asad put $1,200 in his pocket and made his way down the length of the African continent to Johannesburg, whose streets he believed to be lined with gold. So began an adventure in a country richer and more violent than he could possibly have imagined. A Man of Good Hope is the story of a person shorn of the things we have come to believe as human - personal possessions, parents, siblings. And yet. Asad's is an intensely human life, one suffered with dreams and desires and a need to leave something of permanence on this earth.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

January 2015

Born and brought up in Zimbabwe before moving to London in 1989, Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for fifteen years before turning her hand to fiction. The Girl on the Train, published by Doubleday, is her first thriller.

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She's even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. 'Jess and Jason', she calls them. Their life - as she sees it - is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.

And then she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but it's enough.

Now everything's changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she's only watched from afar.

Now they'll see; she's much more than just the girl on the train ...

Arrows of Rain by Okey Ndibe

January 2015

Novelist, political columnist and essayist, Okey Ndibe's debut novel, Arrows of Rain, will be republished by Soho Press. Originally published by Heinemann's African Writers Series in 2000, Arrows of Rain, looks at a woman's drowning and the ensuing investigation in an emerging African nation.

A young prostitute runs into the sea and drowns. The last man who spoke to her, the "madam" Bukuru, is asked to account for her death. His shocking revelations land him in court. Alone and undefended, Bukuru must calculate the cost of silence in the face of rampant corruption and state-sponsored violence against women.

Arrow of Rain dramatises the relationship between an individual and the modern African state. Okey Ndibe examines the erosion of moral insight in both public and private life, drawing out the complex factors behind the near-collapse of a nation.

The Curator by Jacques Strauss

February 2015

South African, Jacques Strauss, first book - The Dubious Salvation of Jack V - won the Commonwealth Book Prize, Africa. His second novel, The Curator, published by Vintage Digital, is an unforgettable and provocative journey into the dark heart of South Africa.

It's not possible to undo what happened in 1976.

In rural South Africa a family massacre takes place; a bloodbath whose only witness is the family's black maid. Hendrik Deyer is the principal of a state-run school camp who lives nearby with his wife and their two sons, Werner and Marius. As Hendrik becomes obsessed with uncovering what happened, his wife worries about her neighbours, a poor white family whose malign influence on her son Werner is - she believes - making his behaviour inexplicably strange and hostile. One night another tragedy changes each of their lives, irrevocably.

Two decades later, Werner is living with his mother and invalid father in a small Pretoria flat. South Africa is a changed place. Werner holds a tedious job in the administration department of the local university and dreams of owning his own gallery. His father is bedridden, hovering on the edge of death, and furious, as he has been for twenty years. As Werner feels his own life slip away, his thoughts turn to murder as a means to correct the course of all their futures. He can't undo the past, but Werner's desperation to change his own fate will threaten not only his own family but also those still living in the aftermath of what happened all those years ago.

The Burning Gates by Parker Bilal

February 2015

Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub (Sudanese- British writer). The Burning Gates, published by Bloomsbury, is his fourth Makana Mystery.

Private investigator Makana has a new client: the powerful art dealer Aram Kasabian. Kasabian wants him to track down a priceless painting that went missing from Baghdad during the US invasion. All the dealer can tell Makana is that the piece was smuggled into Egypt by an Iraqi was criminal who doesn't want to be found.

The art world is a far cry from the shady streets and dirty alleyways of the Cairo that Makana knows. but he discovers that this side of the city has its own dark underbelly. Before long, he finds himself caught between dangerous enemies on a trail that leads him into the darkness of war and which threatens to send the new life he has built for himself up in flames.

Arabic cover

Ritual by Amir Tag Elsir (translated by William Hutchins)

April 2015

Amir Tag Elsir is a Sudanese writer and doctor whose novel The Grub Hunter was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2011.

In Ritual, published by Bloomsbury, a Sudanese writer begins to suspect that one of his most idiosyncratic characters from a recent novel resembles - in an uncanny, terrifying way - a real person he had never met. Since he condemned this character to an untimely death in the novel, should he attempt to save this real man from a similar fate?

Set in both sides of Khartoum - the bustling capital city and the neglected, poverty - stricken underbelly - this is a novel of unreliable narrators, of insane asylums and of the (dubious?) relationship between imagination and reality.

A General Theory of Oblivion by Jose Eduardo Agualusa

May 2015

Jose Eduardo Agualusa, author of novels including Creole and The Book of Chameleons, is one of the leading literary voices in Angola and the Portuguese language today.

On the eve of Angolan independence an agoraphobic woman named Ludo bricks herself into her apartment for 30 years, living off vegetables and the pigeons she lures in with diamonds, burning her furniture and books to stay alive and writing her story on the apartment's walls.

Almost as if we're eavesdropping, the history of Angola unfolds through the stories of those she sees from her window. As the country goes through political upheavals from colony to socialist republic to civil war to peace and capitalism, the world outside seeps into Ludo's life through snippets on the radio, voices from next door, glimpses of someone peeing on a balcony, or a man fleeing his pursuers.

A General Theory of Oblivion, published by Vintage Digital, is a perfectly crafted, wild patchwork of a novel, playing on a love of storytelling and fable.

The Lights of Pointe-Noire - Alain Mabanckou (translated by Helen Stevenson)

May 2015

Award-winning novelist, poet and essayist, Alain Mabanckou, has written several novels including African Psycho, Black Bazaar and Tomorrow I'll be Twenty.

The Lights of Pointe-Noire, published by Serpent's Tail, is a meditation on homecoming.

Alain Mabanckou left Congo in 1989. When he returns home two decades later to the bustling Congolose port town of Pointe-Noire, he finds a country in some ways changed beyond recognition: the cinema where, as a child, Mabanckou gorged on American culture has become a Pentecostal temple; his secondary school has been re-named in honour of a previously despised colonial ruler. But many things remain unchanged, not least the superstitions which inform everyday life.

Mabanckou, now a celebrated writer, finds he can only look on as an outsider at the place where he grew up. As he delves into his childhood, into memories of his departed mother and into the strange mix of belonging and absence that informs his return to Congo, Mabanckou slowly builds a wise, wry, moving exploration of the way home never leaves us, however long ago we left.

The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
May 2015

Award-winning fantasy and sci-fi writer, Nnnedi Okorafor, is back with the prequel to the highly acclaimed, World Fanstasy Award-winning novel, Who Fears Death. The Book of Phoenix, published by Daw Books, is a unique work of magical realism featuring the rise of Okorafor's powerful, memorable, superhuman women.

A fiery spirit dances from the pages of the Great Book. She brings the aroma of scorched sand and ozone. She has a story to tell ...

Phoenix was grown and raised among other genetic experiments in New York's Tower 7. She is an "accelerated woman" - only two years old but with the body and mind of an adult, Phoenix's abilities far exceed those of a normal human. Still innocent and inexperiences n the ways of the world, she is content living in her room speed reading e-books, running on her treadmill, and basking in the love of Saeed, another biologically altered human of Tower 7.

Then one evening, Saeed witnesses something so terrible that he takes his own life. Devastated by his death and Tower 7's refusal to answer her questions, Phoenix finally begins to realise that her home is really her prison, and she becomes desperate to escape.

But Phoenix's escape, and her destruction of Tower 7, is just the beginning of her story. Before her story ends, Phoenix will travel from the United States to Africa and back, changing the entire course of humanity's future.

Jimfish by Christopher Hope
May 2015

South African novelist, poet and playwright, Christopher Hope - known for his controversial works dealing with racism and politics in South African - is the author of several novels including Krug's Alp (winner of the Whitbread Prize for Fiction) and Serenity House (shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1992).

Jimfish is published by Atlantic Books. In the 1980s, a small man is pulled up out of the Indian Ocean in Port Pallid, SA, claiming to have been kidnapped as a baby. The Sergeant, whose job it is to sort the local people by colour, and thereby determine their fate, peers at the boy, then sticks a pencil into his hair, as one did in those days, waiting to see if it stays there, or falls out before he gives his verdict:

'He's very odd, the Jimfish you've hauled in. If he's white he is not the right sort of white. But if he's black, who can say? We'll wait before we classify him. I'll give his age as 18, and call him Jimfish. Because he's a real fish out of water, this one is.'

So begins the odyssey of Jimfish, a South African Everyman, who defies the usual classification of race that defines the rainbow nation. His journey through the last years of Apartheid will extend beyond borders of South Africa to the wider world, where he will be an unlikely witness to the defining moments of the dying days of the twentieth century. Part fable, part fierce commentary on the politics of power, this work is the culmination of a lifetime's writing and thinking, on both the Apartheid regime and the history of the twentieth century, by a writer of enormous originality and range.

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