本·奥克瑞1959年生于非洲西部国家尼日利亚。他幼年在伦敦度过，并就读于当地小学，七岁随父回到尼日利亚。中学毕业后，奥克瑞在一家涂料店做店员，十八岁移居英格兰，在艾赛克斯大学(EssexUniversity)研修比较文学。十九岁时即已写出第一部长篇小说《鲜花与阴影》。由于生活窘迫，他未能读完大学。但他自幼深受非洲民间叙事传统的熏陶，阅读面十分广泛，并通过小说创作向世人展示了杰出的文学才华。他的代表作包括《饥饿的路》(1991年)、《非洲挽歌》(1992年)、《迷魂之歌》(1993年)、《神灵为之惊异》(1995年)、《危险的爱》(1996年)等。其中《饥饿的路》于1991年获英国最具权威的文学奖——布克奖。此外，奥克瑞还撰写了许多文论和大量短篇小说。他荣膺多个文学奖项，近年来在世界文坛备受瞩目。他目前作为访问作家(VisitingWriter-in-residence)客居于剑桥的三灵学院(TrinityGllege)。

In the decade since it won the Booker Prize, Ben Okri's Famished Road has become a classic. Like Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children or Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude , it combines brilliant narrative technique with a fresh vision to create an essential work of world literature.

The narrator, Azaro, is an abiku , a spirit child, who in the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria exists between life and death. The life he foresees for himself and the tale he tells is full of sadness and tragedy, but inexplicably he is born with a smile on his face. Nearly called back to the land of the dead, he is resurrected. But in their efforts to save their child, Azaro's loving parents are made destitute. The tension between the land of the living, with its violence and political struggles, and the temptations of the carefree kingdom of the spirits propels this latter-day Lazarus's story.