Prayer for the Living

Bloomsbury presents Prayer for the Living, written and read by Ben Okri.


Explore the extraordinary imagination of Booker Prize-winner and visionary author Ben Okri – one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary literature.

Playful, frightening, even shocking– the stories in this collection blur the lines between illusion and reality, between darkness and magic. This is a writer at the height of his powers, 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 the Andes, in a printer's shop in Lagos. The characters include a murderer, a detective, a man in a cave, 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...


'Infinite in impact, conveying meanings that transcend mere definitions' Los Angeles Review of Books