World Fantasy Award-winning Nigerian-American sci-fi master Nnedi Okorafor (Binti: Home; Akata Witch) will enthrall readers with this Africanfuturist novella about a Ghanaian girl cursed with mysterious, deadly powers.
Before Ghana comes to know her as Sankofa, the Adopted Daughter of Death, she is Fatima, a malaria-prone five-year-old nicknamed "Starwriter" because she draws constellations and imaginary "sky words" in the soil. After a mysterious meteor shower, Fatima finds a glowing green seed beneath her favorite shea tree. Her father sells it, but it has already given Fatima the ability to destroy all life in her vicinity with a corona of green light. After a tragic accident, Fatima renames herself Sankofa and takes to the road alone, at age seven, to search for the seed. Strangers fear her power, though the terminally ill see her as an angel of mercy who "shined like a moon who knew it was a sun." As she grows, Sankofa must reckon with the source and scope of her power and those who want it for themselves.
Okorafor's dark parable is the bittersweet coming-of-age tale of a gentle soul thrust into an impossible crucible. While set in a futuristic Ghana with police robots and stretch-gel television sets, Sankofa's journey has the bones of a fairy tale: an orphaned hero, a terrible curse and an impossible quest. Her power brings her freedom and isolation in equal measure as she struggles to reconcile her peaceful heart with her deadly nature. Okorafor's star continues to blaze brightly. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads