The Freedom Artist

"Ben Okri’s new novel begins with an ominous tone, telling readers that “civilizations became so successful that [people] forgot they were in prison. They began to think they were free.” This prison is both literal and metaphorical, and the novel’s characters puzzle over what it is, where it is, who its prisoners are and how it can be escaped or evaded or transcended. A modern fable in which humans walk around while sleeping and lay awake at night screaming, this unsettling read is still cautiously hopeful, pointing to storytelling as a way of understanding how to exist."