The Famished Road

Written in a style that evokes the oral tradition of storytelling, The Famished Road, by Nigerian writer Ben Okri, follows the peripatetic adventures of Azaro, a young boy who is finding his way amid the poverty and political passions of a newly independent nation. Winner of the prestigious Booker Prize in 1991, the novel presents an allegorical tale of both the pitfalls and the promise latent in the post-colonial moment. Nigeria was one of the first countries to gain independence from Great Britain in 1960, only to descend into civil war by the decade’s end. Azaro himself symbolizes the yearnings of the nation, the desire for dignity and peace. He is an abiku, a spirit child, with one foot in the material world and one in the spirit realm; he is caught between worlds just as the nation is caught between histories. The first in a trilogy that includes Songs of Enchantment (1993) and Infinite Riches (1998), The Famished Road takes the reader on a journey through the unfortunate reality of impoverished bodies and thwarted dreams as well as the fantastical territory of ancestral spirits and nature incarnate. All quotations are taken from the Anchor Books, Doubleday 1992 edition, with original British spelling and punctuation.