Enter a world very close to our own... One in which technology can allow you to explore an alternate love-life with a stranger. A world where you can experience the emotions of another person through a chip implanted in your brain. And one where you can view snippets of a distant relative's life with a little help from your DNA. But remember: these experiences will not be without consequences . . . In this stunning debut collection, Kelechi Okafor combines the ancient and the ultramodern to explore tales of contemporary Black womanhood, asking questions about the way we live now and offering a glimpse into our near future. Uplifting, thought-provoking, sometimes chilling, these are tales rooted in the recognisable, but not limited by the boundaries of our current reality-where truth can meet imagination and spirituality in unexpected ways. Allow yourself to be taken on a journey into worlds that are blazing with possibility, through stories that will lead you right up to the Edge of Here . . .

Enter a world very close to our own... One in which technology can allow you to explore an alternate love-life with a stranger. A world where you can experience the emotions of another person through a chip implanted in your brain. And one where you can view snippets of a distant relative's life with a little help from your DNA. But remember: these experiences will not be without consequences . . . In this stunning debut collection, Kelechi Okafor combines the ancient and the ultramodern to explore tales of contemporary Black womanhood, asking questions about the way we live now and offering a glimpse into our near future. Uplifting, thought-provoking, sometimes chilling, these are tales rooted in the recognisable, but not limited by the boundaries of our current reality-where truth can meet imagination and spirituality in unexpected ways. Allow yourself to be taken on a journey into worlds that are blazing with possibility, through stories that will lead you right up to the Edge of Here . . .

Set in a near-future enhanced by AI technology, a Black British journalist comes into her power, literally and figuratively, when her strange, spiritual destiny is awakened by an assignment to Benin. She then must use her newfound abilities to defeat an otherwordly conspiracy concerning missing Black kids...

In a near-future London where technology affects everything from our bodies to our politics, journalist Pels Badmus wants to make a real difference. She's desperate to solve a spate of disappearances of young Black kids-including her friend's brother. But her boss doesn't want to hear it. Instead, he assigns her to cover the "unreasonable" protests thousands of miles away in Benin, against culturally oblivious tourists travelling to partake in sacred Spirit Vine rituals.

Pels soon finds herself in West Africa, ignoring her boss's motives in assigning her to this piece and hoping to use it as leverage later. She's also trying to ignore the strange, ethereal dreams she's been having...

However, when Pels takes the Spirit Vine herself, she experiences something mind-boggling. Something that points to an unfulfilled destiny that could change the course of her life. But first she must return home and confront an otherworldly conspiracy related to the missing children.

Because she may just be the only one able to stop it.

A bold imagining of our future through the lens of ancient spirituality, Awakened is a page-turning fable about a Black woman coming into her power, perfect for fans of N.K Jemisin and Netflix's Supacell.