The Freedom Artist
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
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 that to find Amalantis, he must first understand the meaning of her question.
Karnak's search leads him into a terrifying world of deception, 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.
"With the stark power of myth, this political allegory evolves into an argument for artistic freedom." —The New York Times Book Review
"[With] prophetic warnings of apocalypse akin to Octavia Butler's The Parable of the Sower, The Freedom Artist offers a contemplative look at post-truth society." —Sierra Magazine
"The concise, declarative prose and the parable-like architecture of the stories resemble ancient forms of wisdom literature." —The Wall Street Journal
"Combines fable, folklore, and mythology with moments of surreal horror to produce a rallying cry against the oppressive institutions that would seek to make knowledge illegal." —Locus Magazine
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Ben Okri. (2020). The Freedom Artist. Akashic Books.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Ben Okri. 2020. The Freedom Artist. Akashic Books.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Ben Okri, The Freedom Artist. Akashic Books, 2020.
MLA Citation (style guide)Ben Okri. The Freedom Artist. Akashic Books, 2020.
| Library | Owned | Available |
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| Shared Digital Collection | 1 | 1 |
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- bioText: 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.
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- An NPR Best Book of 2020: "Okri's tale is especially resonant in our current post-truth environment." —Booklist (starred review)
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 that to find Amalantis, he must first understand the meaning of her question.
Karnak's search leads him into a terrifying world of deception, 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.
"With the stark power of myth, this political allegory evolves into an argument for artistic freedom." —The New York Times Book Review
"[With] prophetic warnings of apocalypse akin to Octavia Butler's The Parable of the Sower, The Freedom Artist offers a contemplative look at post-truth society." —Sierra Magazine
"The concise, declarative prose and the parable-like architecture of the stories resemble ancient forms of wisdom literature." —The Wall Street Journal
"Combines fable, folklore, and mythology with moments of surreal horror to produce a rallying cry against the oppressive institutions that would seek to make knowledge illegal." —Locus Magazine - reviews
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- source: Linda Grant, Independent on Sunday
- content: Okri is incapable of writing a boring sentence. As one startling image follows the next, The Famished Road begins to read like an epic poem that happens to touch down just this side of prose...When I finished the book and went outside, it was as if all the trees of South London had angels sitting in them."
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Starred review from December 2, 2019
This haunting and inspiring novel from Booker winner Okri (The Famished Road) follows a man’s search for a woman who goes missing in a dystopian world. An oppressive and faceless “Hierarchy” dominates the world, in which people move through their days in a state of near-catatonia, sensing but helplessly fearing their subjugation. The citizens are largely numbed, but some, such as young woman Amalantis, dare to speak out. After Amalantis courageously asks, “Who is the prisoner?” she is abruptly arrested for posing a taboo, revolutionary question, and her lover, Karnak, embarks on a quest to find her. He roams the streets seeking answers from whoever dares to speak with him. Karnak watches the populace grow increasingly resistant to the Hierarchy’s oppression, first through ubiquitous screams in the night, and then through an epidemic of nervous breakdowns that occur randomly among the public, which can only be resolved by a transcendental awakening. Karnak’s search is juxtaposed against the spiritual trials of a man named Mirababa, who travels through mystical, otherworldly realms, where he meets beings who offer perplexing guidance on his quest to understand true freedom. In this story of political abuse and existential angst, Okri employs a powerful and rare style reminiscent of free verse and evoking a mythical timbre. This is a vibrantly immediate and penetrating novel of ideas. Agent: Georgina Capel, Georgina Capel Associates.
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Starred review from January 1, 2020
In an unspecified time and place, a persistent young woman, Amalantis, is arrested for asking too many questions about a society in which myths, books, and art have all been eliminated. Citizens have long succumbed to the Prison, a loss of imagination and curiosity in the name of equality and conformity. Karnak, Amalantis' lover, goes in search of her and the truth she sought. He searches for the question-askers, who spray paint provocative messages throughout the city and are hunted by the authorities. Karnak goes deeper into a world in which bookstores have been vanishing for decades and where there is massive suspicion about both authorities and citizens and even the self. In alternating chapters, Mirababa, a young boy, is initiated on a quest to understand layers of self-awareness and the truth about imprisonment by authorities versus self-imprisonment. These parallel internal and external journeys explore threats to freedom when truth is commodified. Man Booker-winner Okri's modern allegory specifies and beautifully renders the impact on the human spirit when people are deprived of history and truth. Written with a striking simplicity that belies the significance of its message, Okri's tale is especially resonant in our current post-truth environment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)
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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 that to find Amalantis, he must first understand the meaning of her question.
Karnak's search leads him into a terrifying world of deception, 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.
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