Latest news with #BenOkri
ABC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Ben Okri, Jana Wendt and Thomas Vowles on heartbreak, new beginnings and queer Melbourne
Booker Prize-winning Nigerian author Ben Okri on his novella Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-Hearted, Australian journalist Jana Wendt on turning to fiction with her short story collection, The Far Side of the Moon and Australian writer Thomas Vowles shares why he's drawn to challenging stories in Our New Gods. Ben Okri is a Nigerian born, UK based writer who won the1991Booker Prize for his novel The Famished Road. His new novel has the wonderful title Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-Hearted. It takes us to a dreamlike masked ball in the south of France, a night of magic and mistaken identity. To attend this festival, you have to have had your heart smashed by love. Ben Okri shares the influence of Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot on his imagination and how he thinks of himself as a "listening board" as an artist. Jana Wendt is one of Australian best-known journalists and now has a new string to her bow. She's just published her first work of fiction, The Far Side of the Moon and other stories. While the stories, for the most part, are not linked her characters are almost exclusively older people remembering past loves, successes and failures. Jana Wendt shared with Claire Nichols why she made the shift from fact to fiction. Screenwriter and novelist Thomas Vowles talks about the pain that inspired his first novel, Our New Gods which is about a lost, gay young man whose longing to belong exposes him to deception and exploitation. It's set in Melbourne's queer scene, between share houses, bath houses and the pool and The Book Show's Sarah L'Estrange visits him in his own share house from where he "watches the world go by".
ABC News
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Mystery in new fiction from Ben Okri, Sameer Pandya and Anjet Daanje
The same question is at the heart of three very different international novels on The Bookshelf this week, 'What really happened'… To a WWI soldier who has forgotten his name and identity in The Remembered Soldier by Dutch author Anjet Daanje? To a fortune teller for the elite class in Ben Okri's Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-hearted? When four high achieving American boys entered a cave, and one emerged terribly hurt, In Sameer Pandya's Our Beautiful Boys? Keep scrolling for a full list of all books mentioned on this week's program. BOOKS Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier (translated from the Dutch by David McKay), Scribe Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier (translated from the Dutch by David McKay), Scribe Ben Okri, Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-hearted, Apollo Ben Okri, Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-hearted, Apollo Sameer Pandya, Our Beautiful Boys, Bloomsbury GUESTS Tom Wright, theatre writer and adapter, and Artistic Associate at Belvoir Street Theatre. Bronwyn Rivers, researcher and novelist whose debut, The Reunion was released this year. She also has a PhD on the 19th century novel. OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Bronwyn Rivers, The Reunion Bronwyn Rivers, The Reunion Max Porter, Grief is the Thing With Feathers Max Porter, Grief is the Thing With Feathers Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock Ben Okri, The Famished Road Ben Okri, The Famished Road William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land William Shakespeare, As You Like It William Shakespeare, As You Like It T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men Ben Okri, The Freedom Artist Ben Okri, The Freedom Artist E. M. Forster, A Passage to India E. M. Forster, A Passage to India Christos Tsiolkas, The Slap Christos Tsiolkas, The Slap Curzio Malaparte, The Skin Curzio Malaparte, The Skin Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob Victor Hugo, Les Misérables Victor Hugo, Les Misérables Herman Melville, Moby-Dick Herman Melville, Moby-Dick Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun Ian McEwan, Machines Like Me Ian McEwan, Machines Like Me Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White Kate Atkinson, Death at the Sign of the Rook: A Jackson Brodie Novel CREDITS
