Anwuli Okwudili - who prefers to be called AO - has enhanced limbs due to birth defects. She chose to have surgeries to replace her useless limbs with state-of-the-art technology. This tech makes some people in her world think of her as unnatural - a cross point between tradition and religion of the past and the possibilities of the future.
When she is attacked in the market, these enhancements save her life, but now she is on the run. She has no one who will harbor her, so she heads into the northern Nigerian desert. Where she comes across a man with two cows.
DNA (he also prefers to be called by his initials) is a Fulani herdsman. He was traveling with all of his cattle and a few other herds. When they tried to go through a town they were attacked. But the videos only start when he is defending himself. Now he and his two remaining cows, Carpe Diem and GPS, are heading north to find help.
The only place to hide is the natural disaster in the desert - the Red Eye - a continuous sandstorm that has been raging for years. There is rumor of a safe haven in the middle of it.
Okorafor has written a timely, compelling novel of corporations, social media, and the human ability to adapt. This is a beautifully told tale of the crossroads of so many things facing us in this time - all coming to a crashing head in the African desert. Read this today.
Okorafor, Nnedi. (2021). Noor. New York: Daw Books.
No comments:
Post a Comment