Author : Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
Citation : Okorafor-Mbachu, Nnedi. The shadow speaker. New York : Jump at the
Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, 2007.
A futuristic fantastical adventure fiction that happens in West
Africa in 2070 is about a Muslim teenager, Ejii. After witnessing her father's
beheading, a fifteen-year-old "shadow speaker" Ejii sets on a
dangerous journey across the Sahara desert to look for Jaa, her father's
murderer. Then soon she discovers that there is a greater purpose to her life
after knowing her possession of mystical powers. Accompanied by her newfound
friend, she realises the need to protect her people from a force seeking to
destroy them completely. With a plot of the era of mind-blowing technology and
tantalising magic, the book is leisurely paced and has a fascinating lyrical
writing style. Readers will be engrossed by the novel's complicated characters,
especially its women and the unusual appearance of African with a taste of
Muslim tradition. This book by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu is the second fiction of
her first debut, Zahrah the
windseeker.
