Prayer for the Living

By Ben Okri

Topical and timely, Booker Prize-winning author Ben Okri's new collection of short stories blur parallel realities and walk the line between darkness and magic.

Is what you see all there is? Look again.

Playful, frightening, even shocking – the stories in this collection blur the lines between illusion and reality. This is a writer at the height of his power, making the reader think, making them laugh, and sometimes making them want to look away while holding their gaze.

Stories here are set in London, in Byzantium, in the ghetto, in the Andes, in a printer's shop in Spain. The characters include a murderer, a writer, a detective, a man in a cave, a man in a mirror, two little boys, a prison door, and the author himself.

There are twenty-three stories in all. Each one will make you wonder if what you see in the world is all there is...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Oct 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9781789544589

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 Prayer for the Living

[Dekelicious · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I finally read a Ben Okri book and I am in awe.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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!