Heatin’ Up: Ben Okri’s THE FREEDOM ARTIST

Booker Prize–winning author of The Famished Road, Ben Okri’s latest book The Freedom Artist officially releases on February 4, 2020, but we are already receiving fantastic advanced praise for this highly anticipated dystopian novel!

The Freedom Artist was included in BuzzFeed‘s “The Most Anticipated Books of 2020,” with editor Arianna Rebolini summarizing the work:

“In Okri’s dystopian version of our reality, the world is a totalitarian state, ruled by an anonymous but powerful authority known as the Hierarchy. When a woman goes missing after painting a simple question — ‘Who is the prisoner?’ — on a public wall, her lover sets out to find (and hopefully save) her. His journey takes him through a dismal landscape, inhabited by people terrified of — but also resisting — their subjugation.”

We have also received two STARRED trade reviews for The Freedom Artist: from Booklist — “especially resonant” — and Publishers Weekly — “haunting and inspiring.”

In a remarkable review from Library Journal, Okri is compared to some of the greatest writers of dystopias:

“Like George Orwell and Margaret Atwood before him, the Booker Prize–winning Okri writes a passionate cri de coeur, a clarion call to activists everywhere to resist apathy and recognize that we are all on this beautiful globe together and that it is ours to lose.”

Finally, read a Q&A with Ben Okri at Publishers Weekly here, detailing his writing inspiration for The Freedom Artist.

Stay tuned for more, and click [here] to purchase your copy of The Freedom Artist — available directly through our website in both paperback and hardcover editions and shipping immediately!

Posted: Jan 10, 2020

Category: Akashic Insider | Tags: Ben Okri, Booker Prize, Booklist, Buzzfeed, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, The Famished Road, The Freedom Artist