Astonishing the Gods
A Novel
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
One of the BBC’s “100 Novels That Shaped Our World,” a much-needed fable that could change how we see ourselves and our reality, from the renowned Booker Prize–winning author.
A young man finds himself among invisible beings who have built a world based on one principle: that we must repeat every experience until we live it fully for the first time. “Only then can we find what we didn’t seek and go where we don’t intend to go.”
Ben Okri navigates the world at once as a writer, an artist, a musician, and a philosopher—in the process, he challenges our craving for the visual and the concrete. We read him not only with our eyes but also with our senses, our intuition. As his story unfolds we begin to inhabit the ineffable land that he creates, our imagination led to a place where what we once thought were fundamental truths are turned magically on their heads.
In the difficult times we live in, in an age decimated by injustice and inequality, Okri brings unexpected insights as meaningful as they are transformative.
“Maybe what seeks us is better than what we seek.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Booker winner Okri (The Famished Road) combines allegory and Yoruba folklore in this illuminating outing, first published in the U.K. in 1995. The unnamed protagonist was born invisible and feels out of place in his hometown. He travels for seven years, hoping to understand "the secret of invisibility," and finds a city of "beautiful solitude." Understanding nothing of his purpose in life, he encounters many obstacles, all of which become "a dream and a sign" of his spiritual and intellectual mission. He crosses a perilous bridge to enter a city where riddles abound, confronts voices he must learn to interpret, and wrestles with dangerous figures such as an equestrian wielding an axe. Along the way, he is instructed by guides who lead him to his true nature ("Your bewilderment will serve you well," one says). Only by conquering these stages will he learn that by letting go of preconceived notions can he reach the truth. The episodic structure and beautiful poetic language perfectly complement the hero's journey. The narrative's kaleidoscopic nature has a transformative effect on the reader, making it deserving of a cult classic status.
