So it felt like a really good fit for a story about someone who's trying to figure out how to be alive and how to reconnect with all that vibrance after death.

The whole lyric goes: “Oh, and you in all your vibrant youth / How could anything bad ever happen to you? / You make a fool of death with your beauty.” And I really like that because it speaks to being alive and the idea that vibrance and beauty are connected to life, in a life conquers death kind of way. Yes, it's a lyric from the song “Hunger” by Florence and the Machine. Can you tell me a little bit about the title of the book? I read that it’s based on a song. “I’m not sure if it’s because this book is commercial fiction,” Emezi wonders, “but this feels like one of the biggest book launches I’ve ever done.”īelow, Emezi spoke to about Fool of Death’s otherworldly origin story, the role of grief in the novel, and why they write books for themselves. As Emezi writes, “There was nothing to stop them from being whatever they wanted.” But in the midst of this path towards self-discovery, Feyi meets a new man and travels to the Caribbean with him to meet his family, and of course, unexpected love ensues. Over the course of one hot Brooklyn summer, she and her best friend Joy spend their days relaxing on the beach, shaving their heads, eating edibles, and getting new tattoos.

Out on May 24, the Nigerian author’s debut romance novel tells the story of Feyi, a young woman who attempts to find herself again after the death of her partner. Since their 2018 debut Freshwater, Emezi has become a National Book Award finalist, appeared on the cover of Time as a 2021 Next Generation Leader, was a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree, and is currently developing two of their books- Freshwater and You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty-for the screen. I need to take a break.” And the break is much deserved. I’ve been doing that nonstop for the last four years. “I decided not to publish next year because if I was, I’d be in the middle of edits right now. “I hope for a sabbatical,” Emezi jokes over the phone. On the morning that I speak to Akwaeke Emezi, they’re in Los Angeles handling press for their new novel You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty-their seventh book published in four years.

Made a fool of death with your beauty