Ben Okri, The Famished Road

Thomas Martinek (Universitat Wien)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.2.3: Anglophone African Writing and Culture: Subsaharan.
Vol. editors: Helen Rachel Cousins (Birmingham Newman University), David Firth (University of Manchester)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1991

Places

Nigeria (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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The Famished Road

is Ben Okri's third novel. Published in 1991 and awarded the Booker Prize in the same year, it has remained his most successful work to date and has won its author a place in the literary hall of fame, international critical acclaim and a large readership.

The Famished Road is the story of the narrator-protagonist Azaro, a boy of about seven years of age, who lives in the suburban ghetto of an African metropolis which is never named, but which can nevertheless be identified as the city of Lagos. The main action covers a time span of approximately one year, presumably the months just before Nigeria's independence from colonial rule in 1960. Azaro is an only son and an abiku, a spirit-child. To understand this cultural icon, one has to resort to the traditional Yoruba

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2468 words

Citation: Martinek, Thomas. "The Famished Road". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 July 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=889, accessed 23 April 2024.]

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