““I meant to write just like a fluffy romance that didn’t have any heavier themes. Unfortunately, once I started writing Feyi all this darkness just kept unfolding…It shows all the facets of Feyi as a person—you have the version of her that’s doing rooftop parties and hooking up with people in the bathroom. And she’s still the same person who is an artist that’s working through her grief. I think it’s so important to show a Black woman who is all these things, and that you can be profane and promiscuous and that doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve a happily ever after.”” –Akwaeke Emezi, interview, Vogue
What booksellers are saying about You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty
- This book is chock-full of lines that will pack a punch. Several times I would put the book down and just say, “wow”, out loud to myself. The tension was so masterfully built and whew! The payoff was very very good. Loved this and love that this genre is new territory for Emezi, but they are certainly not showing any novice tendencies. Such a fantastic read! ―Nyawira Nyota from Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, NC
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- I absolutely loved this book. A sumptuous, sexy, fierce, and fresh romance that makes you feel like bursting out of your front door to take on life and all it has to offer. Emezi never ceases to amaze! ―Carroll Gelderman from Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans, LA
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- After reading Emezi’s collection of poems, Content Warning: Everything, I knew I had to join this romantic journey of what love after loss could really look like. This book turned out to be one of my favorite reads of all time. Emezi introduces us to Feyi Adekola so that we can explore how desire and grief just might inform one another. I can’t recommend this novel enough and am excited to continue reading Emezi’s diverse and expansive collection. ―Eden Hakimzadeh from Oxford Exchange in Tampa, FL
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- This book is brutal. It is also stunning and heart wrenching and guttural and oh so tender. The story itself is flecked with gold- the prose is strung tightly across each page, unyielding and effortless, and the relationships forged on each page are both subtle and earth shattering. At once a story of grief, love, and a tribute to life and the time we have on this earth, You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty is guaranteed to make you think, cry, laugh, and then want to do it all over again. ―Mary Louise Callaghan from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC
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About Akwaeke Emezi
Akwaeke Emezi (they/them) is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Death of Vivek Oji, which was a finalist for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the PEN/Jean Stein Award; Pet, a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, a Walter Honor Book, and a Stonewall Honor Book; Freshwater, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize; and most recently, Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir, which won the 2022 ALA Stonewall Prize for Best Nonfiction Book. Selected as a 5 Under 35 honoree by the National Book Foundation, they are based in liminal spaces.
