num_pages: 512
description: BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • A modern classic that reveals the tension between the land of the living, with its violence and political struggles, and the temptations of the carefree kingdom of the spirits. •  "A dazzling achievement for any writer in any language." — The New York Times Book ReviewIn the decade since it won the Booker Prize, Ben Okri's Famished Road has become a classic. Like Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children or Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, it combines brilliant narrative technique with a fresh vision to create an essential work of world literature.The narrator, Azaro, is an abiku, a spirit child, who in the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria exists between life and death. The life he foresees for himself and the tale he tells is full of sadness and tragedy, but inexplicably he is born with a smile on his face. Nearly called back to the land of the dead, he is resurrected. But in their efforts to save their child, Azaro's loving parents are made destitute.
language: English
title: The Famished Road
titlecomplete: The Famished Road
genres: Magical Realism, Classics, Fantasy, African Literature, Novels, Nigeria, Africa, Literature, Literary Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 12536
places: Nigeria
series: The Famished Road Trilogy
awards: awardedAt: 662716800000
name: Booker Prize, awardedAt: 757411200000
name: Premio Grinzane Cavour
category: Narrativa Straniera
publisher: Anchor Books