To enter the world of Ben Okri's stories is to surrender to a new reality. Set in the chaotic streets of Lagos and the jungle heart of Nigeria, all the laws of cause and effect, fact and fiction, are suspended. It is a world where the lives of the powerless veer terrifyingly close to nightmare. In rich, lyrical, almost hallucinatory prose Ben Okri guides us through the fabulous and the mundane, the serene and the randomly violent. The unrelenting Nigerian heat and the implacable darkness of the black-out and the military curfew are the backdrops for his characters each finding their own ways to survive. We witness their dogged resistance to impotence, their unquenchable humour and their insistence on the possibility of love in the face of terror. Written with the lucid clarity and logic of dream, Stars of the New Curfew is a book of visionary imagination. Views: 369
In Pointe-Noire, in the small neighbourhood of Voungou, on the family plot where young Michel lives with Maman Pauline and Papa Roger, life goes on. But Michel's everyday cares - lost grocery money, the whims of his parents' moods, their neighbours' squabbling, his endless daydreaming - are soon swept away by the wind of history. In March 1977, just before the arrival of the short rainy season, Comrade President Marien Ngouabi is brutally murdered in Brazzaville, and not even naïve Michel can remain untouched. Starting as a tender, wry portrait of an ordinary Congolese family, Alain Mabanckou quickly expands the scope of his story into a powerful examination of colonialism, decolonization and dead ends of the African continent. At a stroke Michel learns the realities of life - and how much must change for everything to stay the same. Views: 296
A serial killer taunts Casablanca's most famous detective, Hanash, in this nail-biting Moroccan noir, a follow-up to Bled Dry A series of gruesome murders shakes the city of Casablanca. The killer knows exactly how the police will pursue him and how to obliterate evidence that could lead them to identify his victims. Fear spreads throughout the city as rumors abound that a serial killer is on the loose. Detective Hanash, despite his reputation, has hit a dead end. But he knows the killer will make a mistake, and it is up to him and his team to hunt down and capture this brutal criminal. Then comes the most audacious homicide yet: the victim is found on the first day of the Eid holiday, directly outside the police headquarters in the center of town. Is the killer taunting the police and its famous detective? And could this be the crime that contains the clue that Hanash has been waiting for? Views: 270
"Electrifying." — O Magazine Named one of the year's most anticipated books by The New York Times, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, BuzzFeed, and moreWhat does it mean for a family to lose a child they never really knew? One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son's body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family's struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious. Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suffers disorienting blackouts, moments of disconnection between self and surroundings. As adolescence gives way to adulthood, Vivek finds solace in friendships with the warm, boisterous daughters of the Nigerwives, foreign-born women married to Nigerian men. But Vivek's closest bond is with Osita, the worldly, high-spirited... Views: 237
As one of Britain's foremost poets, Ben Okri brings both poetry and story together, paring writing and image down to their essentials. This significant title story 'The Comic Destiny' forms the centrepiece of this collection, complemented by thirteen magical stokus. In his new introduction Ben Okri describes it as a talisman, an alchemic instigator for much of his later work. The stoku is a blend of story and haiku. And thirteen, according to the author, is the number of liberation. All these stories are about freedom. They flow easily, but burn slowly. And they offer the possibility of freedom beyond the confines of our usual perception. 'Moments of genuine insight and poetry' Guardian. 'Okri's writing has a light-as-air elegance, yet its seriousness keeps the stories gravity bound' New Statesman. Views: 159
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... Views: 98
Casablanca. Othman, a handsome young Moroccan man, returns home to discover his elderly French wife, Sofia, brutally murdered in their bedroom. Highly educated but chronically unemployed, Othman had been in desperate straits before meeting Sofia, who pampered him with fancy cars, expensive clothes, and access to her mansion in the most exclusive neighborhood in Casablanca. But living with a woman more than forty years his senior was too much for Othman—before his wife's murder he sought relief in a steamy affair with an attractive young aerobics instructor, Naeema.The Moroccan police quickly zero in on Othman as the prime suspect in his wife's murder. But is he guilty? Did he kill his wife for the money and his lover? Or is he an innocent man, framed by circumstance—and an overzealous and brutal police force?Abdelilah Hamdouchi's The Final Bet is the first Arabic detective novel to be translated into English. With it, Hamdouchi joins the ranks of Yasmina... Views: 71
This contemporary youth novel, written in a first person retrospective narrative style, shares with the reader the story of the highly intelligent and very beautiful Nandile Dube, who – from an early age – hopes to be an "honest human rights lawyer to make sure helpless people get treated fairly and with respect". Her long-suffering mother fully supports Nandi's dream, to the extent of working double shifts to pay Nandi's school fees at a former Model C school. Mrs Dube constantly encourages Nandi to make use of every chance to attain her dream. Nandi's father, however, holds the patriarchal view that education is wasted on a girl and that women serve no other purpose in society than "to cook, clean, please their husbands" and bear children. The stage is then set for a story that grips the reader from the very first paragraph. Will the courageous Nandi and her support team of "Earth Angels" help her to hold on to her dream of becoming a lawyer, or will her sexist... Views: 70
'Agony exploded in her knee. She staggered, tried to keep going, then nearly fell as a shocking pain rushed up her leg. Confusion and fear swamped her senses, escape suddenly essential. The tuskless cow turned and hobbled away, each step agonising torture. Her front right knee joint had been shattered by the single copper-jacketed bullet. Man, her hated enemy, had just handed out a death sentence. . .' As the rangers and staff of a luxury lodge in Etosha National Park, Namibia welcome the last guests of the season, thoughts are predominantly on the three-month break ahead. Except for Sean, who is fighting his growing attraction for the manager's wife, Thea. Camping in the park nearby, Professor Eben Kruger has his work cut out keeping the attention of the university students in his charge on the behavioural habits of the cunning jackal. None of them could ever be prepared for the horrendous events about to take place. Each will be pushed to breaking point as the quest for... Views: 69
Twelve of Ben Okri's most controversial non-fiction pieces form this collection on the theme of freedom, ranging from the personal to the analytical, including a meditation on the role of the poet, a study of Picasso's Minotaur, a paean to human freedom in honour of Salman Rushdie, and an appraisal of fellow-Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. Lyrically imaginative and provocative, A WAY OF BEING FREE confirms Okri's place as one of the most inspiring of contemporary writers. Views: 69
A collection of exquisitely crafted essays by Ben Okri, one of Britain's foremost poets, and a Booker Prize-winning novelist, that explore such diverse themes as childhood and creativity, beauty, censorship, art and politics. 'A single line,' writes Ben Okri, 'can lead the mind to terraces of contemplation. Naturally it depends on the line and the view.' This is a collection of exquisitely crafted essays on themes as diverse as childhood and creativity, beauty, censorship, art and politics. They are responses to the world and the times we live in. They ask unsettling questions. They provoke thoughts and they make us dream. 'Profound and enchanting' The Times. 'There can be no mistaking Okri's passion and intelligence. A powerful piece of work' Sunday Telegraph. Views: 68
A magisterial and sweeping history of modern Africa.The end of the Second World War signalled the rapid end of the European African empires. In 1945, only four African countries were independent; by 1963, thirty African states created the Organization of African Unity. Despite formidable problems, the 1960s were a time of optimism as Africans enjoyed their new independence, witnessed increases in prosperity and prepared to tackle their political and economic problems in their own way. By the 1990s, however, the high hopes of the 1960s had been dashed. Dictatorship by strongmen, corruption, civil wars and genocide, widespread poverty and the interventions and manipulations of the major powers had all relegated Africa to the position of an aid 'basket case', with some of the world's poorest and least-developed nations. By exploring developments over the last fifteen years, including the impact of China, new IT technology and the Arab Spring, the rise... Views: 68
Amanda Parkyn's memoir focusses on her life in 1960s Southern and Northern Rhodesia. Based on the letters she wrote to her parents back in England, Roses Under the Miombo Trees covers significant events in Rhodesia's history as uniquely witnessed through the eyes of a young naïve housewife Amanda Parkyn, a young English bride, finds herself in 1960s colonial Africa. Life as wife of a sales representative means frequent change, as he is posted to progressively smaller communities, first in Southern Rhodesia pre-Ian Smith, then north to the tip of Lake Tanganyika, in a Northern Rhodesia about to be granted its independence. She writes home regularly as she learns to keep house, to become madam to a succession of servants, as she eagerly seeks to fit into a white society very different from that of her upbringing. Starting a family brings new challenges as she must learn to make do in ingenious ways to stretch their tiny budget. Back in England her mother sends frequent... Views: 68
For eighteen-year-old Charlotte, university life is better than she'd ever dreamed — a sophisticated and generous roommate, the camaraderie of dorm living, parties, clubs and boyfriends. Most of all, Charlotte is exposed to new ideas, and in 1981 Ghana, this may be the most exciting – and most dangerous — adventure of all. Views: 67
Non-Fiction 1917Summary:At the outbreak of the war Dolbey was attached as medical officer to the 2nd battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers. In November 1914 he was taken prisoner and remained in Germany to May 1915. He was appointed temporary captain, RAMC on 10 July 1917, served in Tanganyika and on the Italian front, and was promoted to the rank of major.In 1919 he was appointed professor of clinical surgery at the Royal School of Medicine, Cairo, and surgeon to the Kasr-el-Aini Hospital. He was also for some years surgeon to the Anglo-American Hospital at Cairo. These posts he resigned at the end of 1930 when he returned to London and, practising at 97 Harley Street, lived at Chelsworth Hall, Chelsworth, Suffolk.He died at Chelsworth Hall on 12 November 1937. Views: 65
