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Ben Okri
- Nigeria, United Kingdom
- Zu Gast beim ilb: 2024
Ben Okri was born in Nigeria in 1959 and grew up there and in England. He studied Comparative Literature at the University of Essex and published his first novel, »Flowers and Shadows«, in 1980. His international breakthrough came with »The Famished Road« (1991). The novel, which won the Booker Prize, features Azaro, the son of a porter and a street vendor and a so-called ghost child – according to Yoruba legend, a child who dies soon after birth in order to return from the harsh reality of life to the far more pleasant world of ghosts. Azaro, however, decides to stay with his parents. With a wealth of fantastic ideas, Ben Okri tells of life in Lagos and the political upheavals in the country on the eve of independence. A work of »magical realism that moves between an unsettling magical world and African reality«, was the verdict of the »FAZ«. In addition to novels, Ben Okri writes poetry, essays, plays, and screenplays. His poetry collection »Wild« (2012) was translated into German by Brigitte Oleschinski: »thoughtful poems about his Nigerian origins, committed songs about the world situation, but also rapturous glorifications of earthly beauty«, summarized the »SZ«. His most recent publications include the novel »The Last Gift of the Master Artists« (2023), which is set in an African village before the start of the transatlantic slave trade, and »Tiger Work« (2023), an activist prose and poetry collection on the subject of climate change. Ben Okri has received numerous awards for his literary work. In 2001, he was appointed to the Order of the British Empire; two years later, he was knighted.
He lives in London.
Status: July 2024
Flowers and Shadows
Longman
Lagos, 1980
The Famished Road
Jonathan Cape
London, 1991
Translation:
Die hungrige Straße
Kiepenheuer und Witsch
Köln, 1994
(T: Uli Wittmann)
Wild
Rider
London, 2012
Translation:
Wild
Das Wunderhorn
Heidelberg, 2014
(T: Brigitte Oleschinski)
The Last Gift of the Master Artists
Apollo
New York City, 2023
Tiger Work
Apollo
New York City, 2023