The Age of Magic

Booker Prize winner Okri (The Famished Road) explores the relationship between storytelling and human experience in this quiet work of magical realism, originally published in 2002 as In Arcadia and inspired by Nicolas Poussin’s 1638 painting Et in Arcadia Ego. Colleagues Lao, Jim, Mistletoe, Propr, Jute, Riley, Husk, and Sam are filming a TV documentary about the mystical world of Arcadia, a legendary lost land reminiscent of Atlantis. The crew travels across Europe, from London to Paris and Switzerland, in search of Acadia: was it ever real or is it a product of overactive imaginations? Throughout the trip, a Quylph, a potentially malevolent supernatural being, follows them, reappearing in their dreams to coax them to find a hidden treasure. The introspective plot is largely character driven, digging into the filmmakers’ psyches and relationships with each other and keeping any sense of magic ephemeral and elusive. The results are slow, pensive, and dreamlike. (Feb.)