An African Elegy

by Ben Okri (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  1997

  $13.71

  Dreams are the currency of Okri's writing, particularly in this first book of poems, An African Elegy, but also in his books of short stories and prize-winning novel The Famished Road. Okri's dreams are made on the stuff of Africa's colossal economic and political problems, and reading the poems is to experience a constant succession of metaphors of resolution in both senses of the word. Virtually every poem contains an exhortation to climb out of the African miasma, and virtually every poem harvests the dream of itself with an upbeat restorative ending' - Giles Foden, Times Literary Supplement.

• Used

  Paperback
  1992

  $3.25

  Ben Okri's novels and stories have been highly acclaimed - the most recent, The Famished Road, won the 1991 Booker Prize for fiction. His writing is characterised by a lyrical, almost musical quality in which he displays the rhythmic touch of the poet. An African Elegy, his first poetry collection, brings together poems which have appeared in The Times, the Guardian, PEN International, the anthology Colours of a New Day and other publications. The title poem was read by the author at the presentation of the Booker prize. An African Elegy is selected from almost ten years of Ben Okri's work and draws for inspiration on his vision of Africa as well as on the everyday material of his life.