LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Blending poetry and prose, fiction and essay, realism and magic in his quintessentially brilliant style, Ben Okri’s Tiger Work is a powerful, passionate polemic for change. Global in scope, timeless and timely, the anthology showcases two poems, six works of prose, and three short stories, along with an essay and a letter to the earth.
Love is threaded through many of the pieces, along with loss and a sense of the way humans have broken Earth. There’s a talking river that remembers “a time when your people used to worship me as a goddess”, and a caged songbird that comes to a little boy in a dream and explains that the forest is silent because “people have been treating the animals and birds badly”. Addressed to children, “The Songbird’s Silence” is especially poignant, as the little boy moves from feeling sadness at the silent forest to resolving “to help the forest live again”.
There’s a small note near the start requesting folks to “read slowly”, and that’s certainly what these pieces compel readers to do — Tiger Work is a nourishing book to ponder and be edified by.
Joanne Owen
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About
Tiger Work Synopsis
Inspired by environmental activism, Tiger Work blends fiction, essay and poetry to make a powerful and very personal appeal for change.
If we continue to live as we do now, Ben Okri argues in this evocative collection, there will be no world left for us to fix. He imagines messages, sent to us from beyond the end, from those who saw it coming - from Africa, Europe, the Americas and the rest of the world - exhorting us to change now.
This is a collection comprising two poems and six prose pieces - three short stories, an essay, a letter, and an interview. It has Ben's classic blend of storytelling, fantasy and magic.
About This Edition
ISBN: |
9781804545430 |
Publication date: |
6th July 2023 |
Author: |
Ben Okri |
Publisher: |
Head of Zeus |
Format: |
Hardback |
Pagination: |
128 pages |
Primary Genre |
Shorter Reads
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Other Genres: |
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Press Reviews
Ben Okri Press Reviews
An artist's ardent plea for change - Kirkus
PRAISE FOR BEN OKRI:
'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.
'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 on The Freedom Artist.
'Okri's rhythmic, folk tale-like prose is beguiling.' Sunday Times on The Freedom Artist.
'Okri's otherworldly literary approach has produced masterpieces.' Independent on Sunday.
'Okri's writing has a light-as-air elegance, yet its seriousness keeps the stories gravity-bound.' - New Statesman on The Magic Lamp
Author
About Ben Okri
Ben Okri was born in Minna, Nigeria. His childhood was divided between Nigeria, where he saw first hand the consequences of war, and London. He has won many prizes over the years for his fiction, and is also an acclaimed essayist, playwright, and poet. In 2019 Astonishing the Gods was named as one of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'.
Author's website: benokri.co.uk
More About Ben Okri