The Famished Road
Book description
Winner of the Man Booker Prize: “Okri shares with García Márquez a vision of the world as one of infinite possibility. . . . A masterpiece” (The Boston Sunday Globe).
Azaro is a spirit child, an abiku, existing, according to the African tradition, between life and death. Born into the…
Why read it?
4 authors picked The Famished Road as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
The novel is a portrait of the harsh realities of post-colonial life and a reflection on the complexities of African culture and history. I find that I can relate to the book's exploration of identity and the struggle between tradition and modernity.
Okri's protagonist, Azaro, navigates the physical and spiritual realms in a way that lines up with the Nigerian superstitions which shaped my life from a young age. His journey is believable and familiar in a unique blend of the fantastical with the real.
The lyrical prose and vivid imagery take me home, back to a world where the…
From J.S.'s list on a vividly accurate picture of the rich culture and history of Nigerian Peoples.
The Famished Road is often categorized as a novel of “magical realism” although the author rejects this categorization. Okri’s tale follows Azaro, a spirit child in Okri’s native Nigeria as he watches the post-colonial state transform with the acceleration of global technology. While Okri weaves the spiritual and physical realms into his narrative, the juxtaposition of the spiritual and physical realms for Okri is a cornerstone of traditional African religion (and is therefore not seen as “unrealistic”). More accurately, The Famished Road resembles Fyodr Doestoevsky’s Notes from Underground: a classic philosophical novel. In The Famished Road, Okri…
From V.G.'s list on for readers who want a story to challenge them.
Ben Okri won a Booker Prize in 1991 for this poetic storytelling finesse based on the Yoruba Abiku Myth.
I love its lyrical depiction of life on the fringes of poor suburban Africa; the narration by Azaro, a 9-year-old boy who decides to stay with his Mom on earth rather than die as he was done in prior reincarnations, is a blend of Kafka and Marquez in tropical Africa, and everything that comes with the heat and humidity. I love the author’s mirror on the hopelessness of poverty, the hypocrisy of the political class, and the situation of poorly governed…
From Feyisayo's list on African post-colonial life.
The Famished Road is an epic novel about a West African "spirit-child" who can traverse the boundary between life and death, a kind of drifting that's truly profound and eerie to contemplate. I love the idea of life and death not necessarily being an either/or situation, but actually being an open-ended space where all kinds of transgressions and reversals can occur.
From David's list on being a drifter or solitary wanderer at large.
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