Book Club Guide

The Famished Road

by Ben Okri · 1991 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

The spirit world and the living world as equally real and mutually penetrating
Political awakening in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria
The abiku child — the one who keeps coming back — and what this persistence means

About this book

Azaro is a spirit child — an abiku — who keeps choosing to remain in the world of the living rather than returning to the spirit world. His life in a Nigerian village is narrated in a torrent of vision, poverty, political upheaval and supernatural encounter. Okri's Booker Prize-winning novel is one of the great works of African magical realism.

Published in 1991, The Famished Road won the Booker Prize and is considered one of the most important works of African literature in English. Okri grew up in Lagos and drew on both Yoruba mythology and his experience of Nigerian political turbulence.

Discussion questions

Azaro is an abiku — a spirit child — who repeatedly chooses life over the spirit world. What is Okri saying through this mythology about the relationship between existence, choice and resistance?
The novel is very long and dense with vision and event. How does Okri sustain this intensity — and when, if ever, does it become overwhelming?
The political upheaval in the background of the novel is rendered through the chaotic, vivid perspective of a child. What does this perspective add — and what does it limit?
The Famished Road's prose is often described as hypnotic. What is Okri doing with language — and how does the style relate to the spirit-world logic of the plot?
The novel won the Booker Prize in 1991. What does it do that earns serious literary recognition — and how does it relate to the tradition of magical realism Okri is often associated with?