
Death of the Author
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Liz Femi
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Anthony Oseyemi
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Jason Culp
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Chris Djuma
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By:
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Nnedi Okorafor
About this listen
Recommended by New 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 by New York Times bestselling 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 listened 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 it Rusted Robots.
When Zelu finds the courage to share her strange novel, she does not realize she is about to embark on a life-altering journey—one that will catapult her into literary stardom, but also perhaps obliterate everything her book was meant to be. From Chicago to Lagos to the far reaches of space, Zelu’s novel will change the future not only for humanity, but for the robots who come next.
A book-within-a-book that blends the line between writing and being written, Death of the Author is a masterpiece of metafiction that manages to combine the razor-sharp commentary of Yellowface with the heartfelt humanity of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Surprisingly funny, deeply poignant, and endlessly discussable, this is at once the tale of a woman on the margins risking everything to be heard and a testament to the power of storytelling to shape the world as we know it.
“An ambitious, inventive tribute to the power of storytelling itself.” — Nikki Erlick, New York Times bestselling author of The Measure
“A deeply felt dazzle. A blaze. It is true deep to the bones.” — Luis Alberto Urrea, Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of The House of Broken Angels
""There’s more vivid imagination in a page of Nnedi Okorafor’s work than in whole volumes."" — Ursula K. Le Guin
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- By: Zora Neale Hurston, Deborah G. Plant - editor
- Narrated by: Blair Underwood, Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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In the 1950s, as a continuation of Moses, Man of the Mountain, Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel about one of the most infamous figures in the Bible, Herod the Great. In Hurston’s retelling, Herod is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the “slaughter of the innocents,” but a forerunner of Christ—a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea.
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like the lion needs no weapon but himself
- By william t. on 03-25-25
By: Zora Neale Hurston, and others
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Mama Said
- Stories
- By: Kristen Gentry
- Narrated by: Carmen Jewel Jones
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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The linked stories in Mama Said are set in Louisville, Kentucky, a city with a rich history steeped in tobacco, bourbon, and gambling, indulgences that can quickly become gripping and destructive vices. Set amid the tail end of the crack epidemic and the rise of the opioid crisis, Mama Said evokes Black family life in all its complexity, following JayLynn, along with her cousins Zaria and Angel, as they come of age struggling against their mothers' drug addictions.
By: Kristen Gentry
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Island Queen
- A Novel
- By: Vanessa Riley
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 21 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, Doll bought her freedom from her Irish planter father and built a legacy of wealth and power as an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier, and planter that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to a glittering luxury hotel in Demerara on the South American continent. Vanessa Riley’s novel brings Doll to vivid life as she rises above the harsh realities of slavery and colonialism by working the system and leveraging the competing attentions of the men in her life
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BRILLIANT
- By PJMcGhee on 07-11-21
By: Vanessa Riley
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The City We Became
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But he can sense the beating heart of the city, see its history, and feel its power. In the Bronx, a Lenape gallery director discovers strange graffiti scattered throughout the city, so beautiful and powerful it's as if the paint is literally calling to her. In Brooklyn, a politician and mother finds she can hear the songs of her city, pulsing to the beat of her Louboutin heels.
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I don't understand the hype
- By Joe on 04-13-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
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A Sign of Her Own
- By: Sarah Marsh
- Narrated by: Fannie Marion
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ellen Lark is on the verge of marriage when she and her fiancé receive an unexpected visit from Alexander Graham Bell. Ellen is deaf and for a time she was Bell's student learning visible speech. During their lessons, Bell also confided in her about his dream of producing a device that would transmit the human voice along a wire: the telephone.
By: Sarah Marsh
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Noor
- By: Nnedi Okorafor
- Narrated by: Délé Ogundiran
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Anwuli Okwudili prefers to be called AO. To her, these initials have always stood for Artificial Organism. AO has never really felt...natural, and that's putting it lightly. Her parents spent most of the days before she was born praying for her peaceful passing because even in-utero she was "wrong". But she lived. Then came the car accident years later that disabled her even further. Yet instead of viewing her strange body the way the world views it, as freakish, unnatural, even the work of the devil, AO embraces all that she is.
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Slow audio speed to 0.9x
- By Camille on 02-02-22
By: Nnedi Okorafor
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Who Fears Death
- By: Nnedi Okorafor
- Narrated by: Yetide Badaki
- Length: 16 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In a post-apocalyptic Africa, the world has changed in many ways; yet in one region genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. A woman who has survived the annihilation of her village and a terrible rape by an enemy general wanders into the desert, hoping to die. Instead, she gives birth to an angry baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand. Gripped by the certainty that her daughter is different—special—she names her Onyesonwu, which means "Who fears death?" in an ancient language.
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The Ending Wasn’t Satisfying
- By Yasmine Debnam on 11-16-23
By: Nnedi Okorafor
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The Poisons We Drink
- By: Bethany Baptiste
- Narrated by: Lynnette R. Freeman
- Length: 16 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
In a country divided between humans and witchers, Venus Stoneheart hustles as a brewer making illegal love potions to support her family. Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her. Then an enemy's iron bullet kills her mother, Venus's life implodes. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother's killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge.
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What a ride!
- By Ms F on 02-15-25
By: Bethany Baptiste
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Shadow Speaker
- The Desert Magician's Duology, Book 1
- By: Nnedi Okorafor
- Narrated by: Délé Ogundiran
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Niger, West Africa, 2074. When fifteen-year old Ejii witnesses her father's beheading, her world shatters. In a time of mind-blowing technology and seductive mysticism, Ejii embarks on a journey to track down her father's killer. With a newfound friend by her side, Ejii comes face to face with an earth turned inside out—and with her own mystical ability. And then she discovers that her travels across the sands of the Sahara have a deeper purpose.
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An exhilarating and thrilling read!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-22-25
By: Nnedi Okorafor
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Dust Tracks on a Road
- An Autobiography
- By: Zora Neale Hurston
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Dust Tracks on a Road is the bold, poignant, and funny autobiography of novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, one of American literature's most compelling and influential authors. Hurston's powerful novels of the South - including Jonah's Gourd Vine and, most famously, Their Eyes Were Watching God - continue to enthrall readers with their lyrical grace, sharp detail, and captivating emotionality.
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Very nice!
- By Joi Wilson on 10-31-16
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So Lucky
- A Novel
- By: Nicola Griffith
- Narrated by: Nicola Griffith
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Mara Tagarelli is, professionally, the head of a multimillion-dollar AIDS foundation; personally, she is a committed martial artist. But her life has turned inside out like a sock. She can’t rely on family, her body is letting her down, and friends and colleagues are turning away - they treat her like a victim. She needs to break that narrative: build her own community, learn new strengths, and fight. But what do you do when you find out that the story you’ve been told, the story you’ve told yourself, is not true?
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Painfully autobiographical... and GOOD
- By Marcos Ibarguen on 07-07-18
By: Nicola Griffith
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The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives
- A Novel
- By: Lola Shoneyin
- Narrated by: Lola Shoneyin
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For Baba Segi, his collection of wives and gaggle of children are a symbol of prosperity, success, and a validation of his manhood. All is well in this patriarchal home, until Baba arrives with wife number four, a quiet, college-educated, young woman named Bolanle. Jealous and resentful of this interloper who is stealing their husband’s attention, Baba’s three wives begin to plan her downfall. How dare she not know her place, they whisper. How dare she offer to teach them to read. They will teach her instead, they vow, and open their husband's eyes to this wicked wind.
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Perfect narration
- By Aima G on 01-13-22
By: Lola Shoneyin
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Remote Control
- By: Nnedi Okorafor
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
The day Fatima forgot her name, Death paid a visit. From hereon in she would be known as Sankofa - a name that meant nothing to anyone but her, the only tie to her family and her past. Her touch is death, and with a glance a town can fall. And she walks - alone, except for her fox companion - searching for the object that came from the sky and gave itself to her when the meteors fell and when she was yet unchanged; searching for answers.
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Afrofuturist Sci/Fantasy Fairytale
- By J. Angel on 01-20-21
By: Nnedi Okorafor
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Honor
- By: Thrity Umrigar
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. As she follows the case of Meena—a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man—Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one’s own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita’s own past.
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Wow.
- By Robert Bryant on 01-19-22
By: Thrity Umrigar
Wow. This novel within a novel is amazing.
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The ending took me by surprise
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Really good book
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Brilliant!
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I Didn't Want it To End!
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Just REad it. Even if you don't agree with my review it'll be worth it.
Just Read it.
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unique storyline and beautifully imaginative
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Lost in imagination
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It tells three stories all mixed together in a way that is easy to follow and also great at keeping your attention. It’s all connected and when it comes together you feel it in your heart. I don’t want to say what you will feel, for art is subjective and I don’t wish to give spoilers. Give it a chance, I’ve been looking for a book that made me feel something for awhile and this did it.
For the misunderstood artist
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Intriguing. Didn’t know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. Good book.
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