One of Nigeria’s most anticipated fantasy novels is set to be released on February 2, 2027, by Harper Voyager US. Emezi shared the news on Instagram, explaining what motivated their turn to fantasy: “I have been waiting my entire career to publish full-on fantasy, and my bet? You’ve never read anything like this.”
Brittle Paper describes the novel as “a dark epic fantasy following the heirs of a magical city’s rival clans through shifting alliances, devastating betrayals, and brutal power struggles that give way to a new order—and perhaps blood-soaked redemption.”
Born in Umuahia and raised in Aba, Nigeria, Akwaeke Emezi is the author of Freshwater, Pet, and the New York Times bestselling The Death of Vivek Oji. They won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa in 2017, were selected as a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, and have had their work selected and edited by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Eclipse & the Wolf will be their tenth book, following Somadina and Son of the Morning, both published in 2025—a pace of publication that continues to astonish readers.
On its website, HarperCollins shared the synopsis of the 480-page novel:
Ten years ago, Eclipse Orinabe and her aunt, Silver, were the sole survivors of a massacre that nearly wiped out their clan. Then the Orinabe unleash their revenge: the annihilation of the clans who betrayed them and the release of Rapture, a drug so potent that the clan—once peaceful pharmaceutical makers—soon has St. Paradise in a chokehold.
Disturbed by the Orinabes’ bloody rise, the surviving clan leaders nonetheless make peace with Silver, known as the Butcher, and accept Eclipse—a weapon disguised as a glamorous clan princess—into society. With the foundations of St. Paradise trembling, one spark will set the city aflame.
And embers are everywhere: Wolf, heir to the Goldshot clan, is on the run from his own people, armed with holy golden bullets. He claims sanctuary with Clan Heron, spies so secretive that no one knows their true heir.
Noah, heir to the psychic Solarin clan, is pushed into a consuming relationship with Eclipse by his clan leaders. But neither heir is what the other thinks, and the secret Noah is keeping is powerful enough to erase St. Paradise’s entire existence in an instant.
An ancient magic ties these clans together, and a brutal reckoning will come as the heirs collide and claim their fraught inheritance. Emotionally rich, explosively thrilling, and as finely wrought as all of Emezi’s work, this standalone novel is perfect for fans of Fonda Lee, R.F. Kuang, and V.E. Schwab.
