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The Freedom Artist

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The Freedom Artist

By: Ben Okri
Narrated by: Ben Okri
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Bloomsbury presents The Freedom Artist written and read by Ben Okri.

'Where fiction's master of enchantments stares down a real horror, and without blinking or flinching, produces a work of beauty, grace and uncommon power' MARLON JAMES, winner of the Man Booker Prize 2015.

An impassioned plea for freedom and justice, set in a world uncomfortably like our own, by the Man Booker-winner Ben Okri.

In a world uncomfortably like our own, a young woman called Amalantis is arrested for asking a question. Her question is this: Who is the Prisoner?

When Amalantis disappears, her lover Karnak goes looking for her. He searches desperately at first, then with a growing realization. To find Amalantis, he must first understand the meaning of her question.

Karnak's search leads him into a terrifying world of lies, oppression and fear at the heart of which lies the Prison. Then Karnak discovers that he is not the only one looking for the truth.

The Freedom Artist is an impassioned plea for justice and a penetrating examination of how freedom is threatened in a post-truth society. In Ben Okri's most significant novel since the Booker Prize-winning The Famished Road, he delivers a powerful and haunting call to arms.

'Ben Okri is that rare thing, a literary and social visionary, a writer for whom all three – literature, culture and vision – are profoundly interwoven' ALI SMITH.©2019 Ben Okri (P)2019 Head of Zeus Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Thought-Provoking Middle East
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Critic reviews

Ben Okri's most significant novel since his Man Booker Prize-winning masterpiece The Famished Road, The Freedom Artist weaves together ancient myth and modern politics for an impassioned story primed for the post-truth age. A story of love and loss, fiercely told and impossible to ignore
A multi-layered allegorical narrative that cuts to the heart of our current political and cultural malaise, while maintaining a mythical, mesmeric flavour that makes the reader feel these are stories they have always known... It's savagely political, disturbing and fiercely optimistic, the deeply felt work of a writer who refuses to stop asking the hardest questions'
Okri creates a chilling atmosphere... Okri's rhythmic, folk tale-like prose is beguiling'
These ideas are virtuosically juggled in a series of short enigmatic chapters... The story does not so much unfold as become manifest... The Freedom Artist has a compelling power and energy that won't let the reader go. Or fall by the wayside'
A heady jumble of influence and inspiration, a tapestry of biblical reference, mythology, folklore and fable. The lyrical simplicity of Okri's prose, with its short sentences and chapters, only heightens the power of the novel's political message
In a world not unlike our own, a young woman called Amalantis is arrested. Her lover goes looking for her. An examination of post-truth society and justice from the Booker-winning author of The Famished Road
The new novel from the Booker winner is set in a world of oppression and imprisonment – one rather like our own'
Fiction's master enchanter stares down a real horror, and without blinking or flinching, produces a work of beauty, grace and uncommon power (Marlon James.)
Okri's trademark magical literary thinking is not broke and he is not about to fix it... The Freedom Artist is an adventure story and an intense trip through the most esoteric corners of the human mind. It's also a beautiful and timely appeal for the importance of books, subversive stories and love'
A novel for our times... Okri takes us into a world where the very concept of truth is barely conceivable... This is uncomfortably close to the bone'
Satirical and carnivalesque elements entertain... Okri's treatment of mass hysteria is inventive'
The Booker winner's best for some time, set in a near-future world of oppressive official spying... Often haunting and beguiling'
One gets the sense that [Ben Okri] is trying to impart an essential, urgent truth about the state of the world today, but - as he warned at the beginning - it is shrouded in mystery... What comes across strongly is the power of words - and by extension, the wordsmith - to wake people from their sleep and look at the world through fresh eyes'
A return to form for its Man Booker-winning author, this is a timely tale of shady government forces, post-truth discourse and the slow erosion of justice
All stars
Most relevant
I really enjoyed ‘On being Free’, but did not like this book as much. I get the premise of questioning societal constraints, but the whole fiction built upon this premise I found a bit wishy washy and contrived. Ben Okri narrates eloquently however.

Too metaphorical

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Utterly mesmerising performance by the author. It is the first time that I have listened to Ben Okri. Poetic, beautiful, I could listen to it over and over again. Pure Genius! I would have given it ten stars if I could.

The Shaman Speaks

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I felt like the whole time I was waiting for the story to start. When it finally did, the story ended. I felt like it was trying too hard to be philosophical and failed with the storyline

The story never got started

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