The Age of Magic (23 page)
Authors: Ben Okri
Dangerous Love
“Had me enchanted from the first page to the last.”
Sunday Telegraph
“Poetic writing of a very high order. Tender, nightmarish, wise and soulful.”
Daily Telegraph
In Arcadia
“Profound and enchanting.”
The Times
“The journey has inspired writers from Homer and Chaucer onwards. Ben Okri gives it an ultra modern twist.”
Daily Mail
“Delightfully lyrical. A truly fascinating work and a hugely ambitious one.”
Scotland on Sunday
Astonishing the Gods
“A modern-day classic.”
Evening Standard
“Beautiful. A new creation myth.”
Daily Telegraph
“Amazing. I think this is as close as you can get to reliving the experience of a bedtime story.”
Guardian
A Way of Being Free
“There can be no mistaking Okri’s passion and intelligence. A powerful piece of work.”
Sunday Telegraph
“Imbues these essays with a writer’s insight about the importance of writing. Rhapsodic.”
Independent on Sunday
“Thoughtful, concise, cultivated and clear.”
Scotland on Sunday
B
EN
O
KRI
won the Booker prize in 1991 for
The Famished Road
. He has published ten novels, three volumes of short stories, two books of essays, and three collections of poems. His work has been translated into more than 26 languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been awarded the OBE as well as numerous international prizes and honorary doctorates. Born in Nigeria, he lives in London.
Twitter:
@benokri
Facebook:
Ben Okri
Fiction
Astonishing the Gods
A young man is transported to an enchanted isle in a quest to discover the secrets of visibility.
He finds himself amidst a society of invisible beings who have built a utopia based on a single law, ‘Every experience is repeated or suffered till you experience it properly and fully for the first time.’
Astonishing the Gods
is available
here
.
Dangerous Love
An epic of daily life,
Dangerous Love
is a story of doomed love, of star-crossed lovers, separated not by their families, but by the very circumstances of their lives.
Omovo, a Nigerian office-worker and artist who lives at home with his father and his father’s second wife. In the world of the compound in which he lives, Omovo has many friends and some enemies, but most important of all there is Ifeyiwa, a beautiful young married woman whom he loves with an almost hopeless passion - not because she doesn’t return his love, but because they can never be together.
Dangerous Love
is available
here
.
In Arcadia
A group of angry and ill-assorted people accept an invitation to make a journey. Inspired by a painting and financed by a mysterious benefactor, they set off to discover the real Arcadia. Or what remains of it.
Their journey begins in ignorance and chaos at Waterloo station and takes them through superstition and myth to harmony. In the Louvre, in front of Poussin’s masterpiece, they begin to understand.
I
n Arcadia
is available
here
.
Essays
A Way of Being Free
Twelve of Ben Okri’s most controversial non-fiction pieces form this collection on the theme of freedom, ranging from the personal to the analytical, including a meditation on the role of the poet, a study of Picasso’s Minotaur, a paean to human freedom in honour of Salman Rushdie, and an appraisal of fellow-Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. Lyrically imaginative and provocative,
A Way of Being Free
confirms Okri’s place as one of the most inspiring of contemporary writers.
A Way of Being Free
is available
here
.
Other Fiction
Flowers and Shadows
The Landscapes Within
Incidents at the Shrine
Stars of the New Curfew
The Famished Road
Songs of Enchantment
Infinite Riches
Starbook
Tales of Freedom
The Age of Magic
Other essays
Birds of Heaven
A Time for New Dreams
Poetry
An African Elegy
Mental Fight
Wild
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The story starts here.
First published in the UK in 2014 by Head of Zeus Ltd.
Copyright © Ben Okri, 2014
Jacket design: Leo Nickolls
The moral right of Ben Okri to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (HB) 9781784081478
ISBN (E) 9781784081461
Head of Zeus Ltd
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