Infinite Riches
A Novel
Published on 30. June 2020
402 pages
978-1-5040-6121-6 (ISBN)
Description
A potent combination of political, metaphorical, and mythical storytelling" from the prizewinning author of The Freedom Artist ( The Scotsman).
"Who can be certain where the end begins?" said Dad, shortly before he was arrested for the murder of the carpenter...
This novel, the conclusion to the trilogy that began with the Man Booker Prize winner The Famished Road, follows the spirit-child Azaro, who travels between the worlds of the living and the dead. Set against the backdrop of a Nigerian village in turmoil, it is a novel about the multiple forms that wealth and power can take, the challenges of the physical world, and the wonders of the mystical world, by an author who has earned numerous literary honors and whose "writing is hailed for its intelligence, tenderness, poeticism and luminosity" ( Financial Times).
"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, author of AutumnMore details
Person
Ben Okri (b. 1959) has published ten novels, including
The Famished Road and
Starbook, as well as collections of poetry, short stories, and essays. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, he has received numerous international awards, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Africa, the Aga Khan Prize, and the Chianti Ruffino Antico Fattore International Literary Prize. He is a vice president of PEN International's English Centre and was presented with a Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum. Born in Nigeria, Okri now lives in London.
Content
- Intro
- Title
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- I
- BOOK ONE
- ONE: The little room
- TWO: The leopard
- THREE: Disappearance
- FOUR: Circling
- FIVE: Prelude to trouble
- SIX: Dialogue with my dead friend
- SEVEN: The arrest
- EIGHT: The gathering wrath of women
- NINE: The imprisoned tyger
- TEN: The fantastic ravings of Madame Koto
- ELEVEN: Seeds of mutiny
- TWELVE: Birth of a three-day legend
- THIRTEEN: Hidden view of the Governor-General
- FOURTEEN: Distorting the rage
- FIFTEEN: The re-emergence of an old deity
- SIXTEEN: Dad dissolves into seven selves
- SEVENTEEN: Madame Koto and the shadows
- EIGHTEEN: A dream of hope
- NINETEEN: Dad summons his ancestors, and fails
- TWENTY: Dad summons a dreaded deity
- TWENTY-ONE: A public confession
- TWENTY-TWO: The vacant Tyger
- TWENTY-THREE: Homecoming of the heroes
- TWENTY-FOUR: Dialogue with the Photographer
- TWENTY-FIVE: Destroying the veil
- TWNTY-SIX: The silence of the Tyger
- BOOK TWO
- ONE: Circling spirit (1)
- TWO: Circling spirit (2)
- THREE: An incomplete ascension
- FOUR: The unaccountable passion of mothers
- FIVE: The old woman's circular narrative
- SIX: A curious interchange
- SEVEN: The battle of rewritten histories
- EIGHT: Exposing the earth
- NINE: Birth of the heat
- TEN: Wrath of the Wandering Spirit
- ELEVEN: Burning the future
- TWELVE: The secret of the heatwave
- THIRTEEN: Dolores mundi
- FOURTEEN: Invisible books
- BOOK THREE
- ONE: The shrine in the labyrinth
- TWO: An ambiguous old woman
- THREE: Dialogue with an unhappy maiden
- FOUR: The vanished rock
- FIVE: A silent coda
- BOOK FOUR
- ONE: An angel redeems our suffering in advance
- TWO: 'The instinct in paradise'
- THREE: A beauty bordering on terror
- FOUR: End of an enchantment
- II
- BOOK FIVE
- ONE: The story of the Rain Queen
- TWO: How Mum paid for my careless words
- THREE: Vigilance
- FOUR: Ghosts of narratives past
- FIVE: The black rock of enigmas
- SIX: A secret chain of dream worlds
- SEVEN: Where does a birth begin?
- EIGHT: The last feast
- NINE: The wind whispers insurrective words on the air
- TEN: A river of contending dreams
- ELEVEN: Contending dreams (2): god of the insects
- TWELVE: Contending dreams (3): good disguised as bad
- THIRTEEN: The angel and the shrine
- FOURTEEN: Resilient ash
- FIFTEEN: The ambush of reality
- III
- BOOK SIX
- ONE: Draw a deep breath for a new song
- TWO: Call of the political rally
- THREE: The dead carpenter
- FOUR: The great rally
- FIVE: Shadow beings in all the empty spaces
- SIX: The insurrective laughter of the dead
- SEVEN: The silence of Tigers
- EIGHT: The dance of the dead
- NINE: The forgotten power of laughter
- TEN: The rally turns into a fantastical riot
- ELEVEN: Adventures into chaos
- TWELVE: The procession of higher beings
- THIRTEEN: Night of wondrous transformations
- FOURTEEN: A sympathetic invasion
- IV
- BOOK SEVEN
- ONE: I flailed my way into a cool terrain
- TWO: I enter the realm where thoughts are voices
- THREE: Assassination of a Rain Queen
- FOUR: A cooling wind
- V
- BOOK EIGHT
- ONE: Earthing evil
- TWO: The disintegration of myth
- THREE: The yellow growth
- FOUR: New rumours change reality
- FIVE: Dad hears lovely melodies
- SIX: The curious stigmata
- SEVEN: 'Who is crying?'
- EIGHT: The blind old man's piety
- NINE: The rewritten riot
- TEN: Living in a paradox
- ELEVEN: Turning death into power
- TWELVE: The mysterious funeral (1)
- THIRTEEN: The mysterious funeral (2)
- FOURTEEN: The power of the dead
- FIFTEEN: 'They have taken her heart!'
- SIXTEEN: Death is cultural
- SEVENTEEN: Old trees are impossible to replace
- EIGHTEEN: The beautification
- NINETEEN: The procession
- TWENTY: Behind the veil
- TWENTY-ONE: An omen
- TWENTY-TWO: Half a ton of concrete
- TWENTY-THREE: Gun salutes
- TWENTY-FOUR: We did not weep
- TWENTY-FIVE: Celebrations for a legend
- TWENTY-SIX: Lingering in the shadows
- TWENTY-SEVEN: When I cried out the pain eased
- TWENTY-EIGHT: As if they had all just lost their mothers
- TWENTY-NINE: A little night music
- THIRTY: Softened faces
- THIRTY-ONE: Time quickens
- THIRTY-TWO
- About the Author
- Copyright
