A Prayer for the Living

Written by Ben Okri

Narrated by Ben Okri

Playful, frightening, shocking—these stories from a writer at the height of his power will make you think, or make you laugh. Sometimes they’ll make you want to look away, but they will always hold your gaze.

These are stories set in London, in Byzantium, in the ghetto, in the Andes, and in a printer’s shop in Lagos. Characters include a murderer, a writer, a detective, a woman in a dream, a man in a mirror, a little girl, a prison door, and the author himself.

Each one of these twenty-four stories will make you wonder if what you see in the world can really be all there is …

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9781705020043

Ben Okri

Ben Okri was born in Minna, Nigeria. His childhood was divided between Nigeria, where he saw first-hand the consequences of war, and London. He has won many awards over the years, including the Booker Prize for Fiction, and is also an acclaimed essayist, playwright, and poet. In 2019 Astonishing the Gods was named as one of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'.

Reviews for A Prayer for the Living

[Donna Bennett · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I received the ARC from publishers, Akashic Books for review. I also listened to the short stories on audiobook via Scribd, narrated by the author, Ben Okri. The book was published February 2, 2021, (216 pages).

This is my first reading of Ben Okri, and I also have his novel, The Freedom Artist (published in 2019), which I have not read yet. When I won an ARC of this publication, I felt it was no time then the present to read one of his books.

Since he published his first novel, Flowers and Shadows (1980), Okri has risen to an international acclaim, and he often is described as one of Africa's leading writers. His reputation as an author was secured when his novel The Famished Road won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1991, making him the youngest ever winner of the prize at the age of 32.

The Boko Haram (1) was a shocker. A bomb is strapped to a little boy, and lead to the middle of the market square!

A Prayer for the Living, everyone in the town is dead, his brother, his lover inside an unfinished school. Amazing! My favorite stories are; In the Ghetto, and I personally related to The Masters Mirror #2 (page 123).

‘An avid collector of books, with over two thousand volumes on the shelves of his accommodations. Hockley died in 1885 of what the doctors called “natural decay” and “exhaustion.” The irony is that at the end he suffered from poor eyesight.’

Most of Okri’s stories are steeped in art, and the city or towns culture. Most of the stories depict Africans in communion with spirits. Some of the stories were very short and some were long. I enjoyed listening to Ben Okri narrate, because he has a melodic cadence, with a Nigerian accent to envision the scenes, scents, and emotions of the characters. I was disconnected with the stories, not fully understanding what was happening, not seeing what the author was writing to his audience, but his descriptions were beautiful and captivating.

#AkashicBooks
#BenOkri
#BooktoRead
#APrayerForTheLiving

[onnaday · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received the ARC from publishers, Akashic Books for review. I also listened to the short stories on audiobook via Scribd, narrated by the author, Ben Okri. The book was published February 2, 2021, (216 pages).This is my first reading of Ben Okri, and I also have his novel, The Freedom Artist (published in 2019), which I have not read yet. When I won an ARC of this publication, I felt it was no time then the present to read one of his books.Since he published his first novel, Flowers and Shadows (1980), Okri has risen to an international acclaim, and he often is described as one of Africa's leading writers. His reputation as an author was secured when his novel The Famished Road won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1991, making him the youngest ever winner of the prize at the age of 32.The Boko Haram (1) was a shocker. A bomb is strapped to a little boy, and lead to the middle of the market square!A Prayer for the Living, everyone in the town is dead, his brother, his lover inside an unfinished school. Amazing! My favorite stories are; In the Ghetto, and I personally related to The Masters Mirror #2 (page 123). ‘An avid collector of books, with over two thousand volumes on the shelves of his accommodations. Hockley died in 1885 of what the doctors called “natural decay” and “exhaustion.” The irony is that at the end he suffered from poor eyesight.’Most of Okri’s stories are steeped in art, and the city or towns culture. Most of the stories depict Africans in communion with spirits. Some of the stories were very short and some were long. I enjoyed listening to Ben Okri narrate, because he has a melodic cadence, with a Nigerian accent to envision the scenes, scents, and emotions of the characters. I was disconnected with the stories, not fully understanding what was happening, not seeing what the author was writing to his audience, but his descriptions were beautiful and captivating.#AkashicBooks#BenOkri#BooktoRead#APrayerForTheLiving

[seeword · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an excellent collection of short (some very short) stories. It's an interesting mix of realism, magical realism and surrealism. Each story creates its own mood and they all have a sense of mystery that calls for close reading. Because of this, I haven't yet read them all though I received then book in January. I'm savoring it, bit by bit!

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This short story collection feels like a series of dreams, some full of wonder and discovery, unexpected twists of fate, and some read like nightmares, sharper and more terrifying than life. The stories travel through the world, set in London and Istanbul, Africa and the Americas. There's a story about Don Quixote in an African printer's shop, a story about a father and his two sons trying to get their broken-down car home in Lagos, several brief, horrifying stories involving the Boko Haram, and a fairy tale involving an enchanted doll house. A London detective uses his intuition to find the culprit, a lonely man dreams of Istanbul, a curious man witnesses the power of a magical mirror held by a cabal of Rosicrucians and, in the titular story, the living envy the dead. I enjoyed my first encounter with this Booker Prize-winning author.

[hemlokgang · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a magical, mystical collection of short stories. I was mesmerized by Okri's prose and the plots of these tales which delve into the glimmering realms of dual realities, perspectives on truth, metaphysics, and ideological complacency. Okri's last story and poem allow the reader to drift into contemplation on the many methods of reading, the value of reading, and the beauty of reading and writing. There is a timelessness and flexibility of place in Okri's writing which is profoundly thought provoking. What a deeply felt pleasure to read this collection!

[lriley_43 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's been a long time since I've read anything by Okri. I read the Famished Road years ago and it was pretty good. This is pretty good too and I think one of its strengths is the multiplicity of angles that this collection of stories, vignettes and poetry comes at the reader from. Maybe there could have been some things edited out but I have to say most of it I liked. Okri is a fine writer and while reading this I wondered what else I might have missed out on between the Famished Road and now.

[browner56 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In Prayer for the Living, renown Nigerian author Ben Okri explores the intersection between the sometimes horrible truth of the daily lives we lead and how those lives might change given the existence of some alternate realities. Nominally structured as a collection of short fiction, the book contains 25 separate works that contemplate a diverse set of themes, such as the brutality of war and civil unrest, the longing to be somewhere else in the world, the power of the written word, the metaphysics of detective work, the travails of seeking a better life, and even the hidden horrors residing in a child’s doll house or an evil mirror. Throughout the volume, the author’s language, which can be astonishing at times, varies facilely with the terrain of his subject matter, ranging as needed from grimly blunt to dreamlike to almost playful.The problem that I had reading Prayer for the Living is that most of these stories were far too brief and underdeveloped—many being only a couple of pages long—to be effective or leave much of a lasting impression. In fact, to call most of these works ‘stories’ is really a misnomer; ‘vignettes’ or ‘scene sketches’ would be a more apt description for much of what the volume contains. On the other hand, I found the few pieces that actually were more fully formed to be quite interesting and thought-provoking. By far the most engaging efforts were “Don Ki-Otah and the Ambiguity of Reading”, in which Cervantes’ legendary knight-errant is reimagined in the modern world and teaches us all (including the author) a thing or two about reading, and “Alternative Realities are True”, a clever take on the detective genre and the ability of seeing without directly looking. On balance, however, this is not a collection that is particularly memorable or likely to be counted among Okri’s most enduring work.

[banjo123 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a collection of short-stories by an Nigerian literature treasure, Ben Okri. His stories have a surreal, dreamlike quality. Sometimes that works well, in other stories it was just a bit too odd. My own dreams are weird enough, I don't need to get lost in someone else's. I think my favorite story in the collection was "Don Ki-Otah and the Ambiguity of Reading," which references both Cervantes and Achebe, and pays tribute to the power of the written word.

[kayanelson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow! I really like the short story format and Ben Okri really delivered. A good short story conveys so much in so few pages. This collection of 25 stories deal with alternative realities. This isn’t a genre I usually read but I sped through this book enjoying every minute it.My favorites were Dreaming of Byzantium where dreams transported the narrator to what he was seeking. At times, the narrator didn’t even know what he was seeking. But this story made me look up some of the history of current day Istanbul.The short Boko Haram stories bring us to see the harsh realities of the current day world.Every story makes you think. This is a book you can re-read. A story here and there,when the mood strikes.

[janerawoof · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Short story collection of strange, surrealist stories, merging reality with a "parallel reality." Often dreamlike. Many made no sense, but I enjoyed the ones which had a "normal" beginning, middle, and end. "The Lie": a king sends out various courtiers to find out the biggest lie. Each returns with a different answer. Only when the king dies will he find out for himself. "The Standeruppers": how early Man becomes able to stand on two feet rather than 4, and the advantages of bipedalism. "The Raft": refugees on a sinking raft. "The Secret history of a door": the door of Newgate Prison and the rise of crime in London and how the crime wave is finally stopped. The 3 Boko Haram stories: a child suicide bomber; confrontation between the nation's army and Boko Haram; an execution staged for a cameraman.