The Famished Road

By: Ben Okri

Narrated by: Hugh Quarshie

Length: 19 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of The Booker Prize 1991

So long as we are alive, so long as we feel, so long as we love, everything in us is an energy we can use.  

He is born into a world of poverty, ignorance and injustice, but Azaro awakens with a smile on his face. Despite belonging to a spirit world made of enchantment, where there is no suffering, Azaro chooses to stay in the land of the Living: to feel it, endure it, know it and love it. 

This is his story.

©2019 Ben Okri (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

Hallucinatory

Like a fever dream. Incredible performance by the narrator. Magical and fantastic. Very strange.

Imaginative story

Imaginative story and wonderful characters brought to life by excellent narration. Highly recommended to anyone interested in creative African writing.

Too many supernatural elements for my taste

I listened to roughly the first third f the book, and then stopped listening. I may go back to it, but I stopped listening because i became impatient with the succession of supernatural moments or experiences. I appreciate that this may well be an authentic expression of the outlook and experiences of people in the culture depicted. Indeed, I chose the book in order to learn something about this. But my interest in the story simply flagged because the appearance of supernatural elements often seems arbitrary, with few constraints on what is allowable. I also began to tire of the unpleasantness of most of the characters–their greed, and status anxiety. Still, the writing is very powerful, and the reader is very good. I'll probably go back to it.

Soul Medicine

One of those books you have to read more than once. totally new way of looking at life, full of images that make your head spin and make you want to listen to them again and again.

excellent performance!

This book is wonderful. literally. it is full of wonder. I've never read anything like it and I'm a teacher of Literature. Okri masterfully weaves traditional African spiritualities into this historical commentary, chastisement, and encourage of humanity.

worst book I've ever bought from Audible

This is not magical realism, not comparable to 100 years of solitude, sadly, just poor writing. Don't waste your time or money.

Immersive enchantment

Okri’s ability to paint sensory imagery with words is absolutely incredible, and, in my opinion, comparable to that of Coleridge, Blake, or Wordsworth. He makes you see, touch, and smell the world he is painting with words. This novel is a deep dive but it is a worthwhile journey.
Regarding the audio book — the narrator was excellent; the pace, the tonal inflections, accent variations. I wish he had recorded the other two novels in this amazing trilogy.

A work of genius, a brilliant narrator

Ben Okri is a writing wizard. I so enjoyed this work of great literature.

A Great Literary Marvel

Ben Okri's 'The Famished Road is my Favorite book in its genre. When I first came across this book back in 1991 I had never heard of Ben Okri and really only bought the book because he was noted as a Booker Prize Winner. That year it was the best money I ever spent. I was enthralled. I couldn't put the book down. The People became real to me and I wondered if the film studio's would make a movie out of it. This is my mirrored thoughts on the book by The Booker Prize Judge;

Ben Okri's beautifully written and moving novel combines fantasy and the vision of a child, the supernatural and the here-and-now to convey Nigerian peasant life in a changing world. It is the most ambitious as well as one of the most fullly realised of this year's novels. It brings a distictively black African way of writing and seeing things into the mainstream of European fiction.

Jeremy Treglowan
Chairman of the Booker Prize Judges

Darkness flowered

The dialogue is descriptive with intent but not boasting of capability
The story is powerful and seamless, foretelling our current situation.
The solution is always a change of heart.
The language resonated with my ancestral blood line
I loved it

The Famished Road

A well written and narrated story. The story transcends all imagination, transports one to the world of spirit

A wonderful whirlwind of a Story.

I was so in AWE of Hugh performance and the storytelling, Ben Okri is a magician with the pen, and this story was captivating. An Ode to things fall apart and the griot storytelling of old. Listen to it and let it transport or transform you.

A dream that makes reality clearer

it took a while with nearly 20h but it was well worth it. loved the shallow lines between spirit world and political harshness. Book has a sense of infinity to it and at times humorous moments. it's description of the party of the poor and the party of the rich applies to many a nation. The only datedness (book is from 1991) is the reference to the West in the end as sole external exploited as China has become the new force of exploitation in many regions of Africa. wonderfully read by actor Hugh Quarshi with great care bringing the rich landscape Okri paints alive.

A vivid explosion of the mytho-poetic in Africa

The narrator deeply etches and emotes every character with loud and subdued personality. A long listen, I needed to pause between parts, but the poetry of this writing kept me continuing. And wow, it transcends the human-spirit experience in voids and layers and evolutions. It takes you into the inner organs and feelings of status, poverty, family and neighbours, completely messy and endearing.

Loved the characters who really came to life in t

Loved the way the characters came to life, one could actually visualise them. A great listen.

Ethereal but quite hard to get through!

The atmosphere in this book is other worldly and really different to any book I have read before. I felt very immersed in the world Okri has created - however it is not easy going! It is convoluted and confusing, in a way that mirrors the frame the protagonist is in. I would be interested in reading this in hardcopy.

A joy to listen to

I enjoyed listening to this book as much as I had enjoyed reading it. It''s definitely one I will return to again.
I loved the narrator's voice too.

Amazing narrator!

I find it hard to find books with a good narrator, if I don't like them it's a struggle to listen to the book. This narrator is absolutely perfect and has many voices. I just can't get enough of this book on here. Highly recommend!