Between The Acts Vintage (The Famished Road Trilogy)

You have never read a novel like this one. Winner of the 1991 Booker Prize for fiction, The Famished Road tells the story of Azaro, a spiritchild. Though spiritchildren rarely stay long in the painful world of the living, when Azaro is born he chooses to fight death: I wanted, he says, to make happy the bruised face of the woman who would become my mother. Survival in his chaotic African village is a struggle, though. Azaro and his family must contend with hunger, disease, and violence, as well as the boys spiritcompanions, who are constantly trying to trick him back into their world. Okri fills his tale with unforgettable images and characters: the bereaved policeman and his wife, who try to adopt Azaro and dress him in their dead sons clothes; the photographer who documents life in the village and displays his pictures in a cabinet by the roadside; Madame Koto, plump as a mighty fruit, who runs the local bar; the King of the Road, who gets hungrier the more he eats. At the heart of this hypnotic novel are the mysteries of love and human survival. It is more difficult to love than to die, says Azaros father, and indeed, it is love that brings real sharpness to suffering here. As the story moves toward its climax, Azaro must face the consequences of choosing to live, of choosing to walk the road of hunger rather than return to the benign land of spirits. The Famished Road is worth reading for its last line alone, which must be one of the most devastating endings in contemporary literature (but dont skip ahead). R. Ellis