Description

‘[A] whimsical tale of transformation… magic is essential, and Okri can spin it.’ Guardian
‘Full of rich hallucinatory imagery and enjoyably vibrant symbolism’ Irish Times

Hearts will be healed and hearts broken, but no one will leave this festival as they arrived…

Viv has turned heartbreak into spectacle: a one-night-only masked festival at a French chateau, marking the anniversary of her first husband’s departure. Guests roam the moonlit woods in search of reinvention, all waiting for Madame Sosostris, the elusive clairvoyant of The Waste Land, rumoured to appear after decades in hiding.

But as midnight nears, disguises slip, emotions ignite and Viv’s carefully planned celebration begins to unravel.

Enchanting and unsettling, this midsummer tale explores love, illusion and the strange transformations of a single night.

Publisher Review

[Okri’s] writing takes on the great riddles of existence – freedom and consciousness, truth and illusion, suffering and transcendence – spinning them into shimmering, allegorical texts * New York Times * A writer who refuses to stop asking the hardest questions * New York Times * Okri can distil language to its essence… his sentences have a careful simplicity, but not at the expense of eloquent writing’ * Financial Times * Okri is incapable of writing a boring sentence * Independent on Sunday * 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 Okri’s writing has a light-as-air elegance * New Statesman * [A] whimsical tale of transformation… magic is essential, and Okri can spin it. * The Guardian * Heaps of witty dialogue and wordplay on romance and breakups… there’s plenty in here for Shakespeare heads too * Shortlist * There is as much healing as there is heartache in this beautiful book * NB Magazine * Fiction’s master enchanter — Marlon James Booker Prize-winning Okri has incredible range… Here, he is in a playful yet contemplative mode as he uses a fantastical party in the woods in the south of France, with masks, costumes, music and a famous fortune teller, to examine two couples that might or might not be in crisis… with heaps of witty dialogue and wordplay on romance and breakups, the popularity of tarot, yoga and astrology and the one thing every character is obsessed with: the future. * ShortList * Full of rich hallucinatory imagery and enjoyably vibrant symbolism. * Irish Times * What a brilliant idea! A fancy-dress ball for the lovelorn in the enchanted grounds of a chateau in the sunny South of France, with the famous clairvoyant Madame Sosostris to read the tarot. What could possibly go wrong? A whimsical tribute to T S Eliot’s masterpiece The Waste Land, with sparkling dialogue, mystery, magic and some rocky marriages. * Saga * An enchanting story of a masked ball…leading to delightfully theatrical twists and a satisfying resolution…Shakespeare lovers should flock to this. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) * The dialogue here grants a shimmery surface to the allegorical underpinning. It helps, too, that the novel’s conundrum couldn’t be realer: Can we ever avoid unhappiness? This beautifully written book is riveting in its attempt to answer that question, from first page to last. * LitHub * A dizzying masquerade where little is as it appears to be…By combining the fantastical elements of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with allusions to T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land,’ Okri creates a world that feels lush while exposing the barren landscapes-both physical and emotional-of modern humanity. * Shelf Awareness *