Songs of Enchantment
Ben Okri. Anchor Books, $12 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-385-47157-2
This sequel to the Booker Prize-winning The Famished Road recounts upheaval in post-colonial Nigeria. (Nov.)
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Reviewed on: 10/03/1994
Genre: Fiction
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- The Famished RoadBen OkriTeeming with fevered, apocalyptic visions as well as harrowing scenes of violence and wretched poverty, this mythic novel by Nigerian short-story writer ( Stars of the New Curfew ) and poet Okri won Continue reading »
- Stars of the New CurfewBen OkriThe central theme in this brilliant collection of African short stories is the difficulty of standing one's ground in a world where superstition, poverty and irresponsible use of power combine to Continue reading »
- Stars of the New CurfewBen OkriThe central theme in this ``brilliant'' collection of African short stories is the difficulty of standing one's ground in a world where superstition, poverty and irresponsible use of power combine to Continue reading »
- Songs of EnchantmentBen OkriAll is not well in the African village where Azaro lives. The child narrator of poet and novelist Okri's The Famished Road , who had outwitted death in the previous book, again relates the oppressive Continue reading »
- Lunatics, Lovers & Poets: Twelve Stories After Cervantes and ShakespeareBen Okri (et al.)This diverse collection presents a dozen stories, half of which are translations. In his concise introduction, Salman Rushdie links Cervantes and Shakespeare for believing that literature need not Continue reading »
- Every Leaf a HallelujahBen OkriBooker Prize winner Okri (The Famished Road) delivers a charming, heartfelt environmentalist fairy tale about a young girl’s quest to save her dying mother—and planet Earth. When Mangoshi is Continue reading »
- Astonishing the GodsBen OkriBooker winner Okri (The Famished Road) combines allegory and Yoruba folklore in this illuminating outing, first published in the U.K. in 1995. The unnamed protagonist was born invisible and Continue reading »
- The Last Gift of the Master ArtistsBen OkriBooker Prize winner Okri (The Famished Road) delivers a convincing cautionary tale of absolute power set in ancient Africa. A prince falls in love with the daughter of an artisan known as Continue reading »
- Dangerous LoveBen OkriBooker winner Okri (The Famished Road) offers American readers a sublime revision of a novel of his that was first published in the U.K., in 1982, under the title The Landscapes Continue reading »
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In Okri’s 'The Freedom Artist' (Akashic, Feb.), a man searches for a woman imprisoned after asking revolutionary questions in a dystopian Continue reading »![]()
For over 30 years, Nigerian writer Ben Okri has been at the forefront of international literature, but has not attained widespread name recognition in the United States. Other Continue reading »
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