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)。

Set in an unnamed African country at an unspecified time (though the similarities with Nigeria in the early 1960s are unmistakable), The Famished Road is narrated by Azaro, an African spirit-child or abiku who, in the folklore of southern Nigeria, is destined to move continually between life and spiritual paradise in an unending cycle of infant death and rebirth. Azaro, however, is tired of never staying long enough to experience life, and decides on this occasion to remain, "to put", he says, "a smile on my mother's face".

Pursued by vengeful spirits, and endowed with special powers that lead him into mischief, Azaro introduces us to a whole world of wonders -- to his mother and father, an impoverished market trader and a load carrier struggling courageously to keep their dignity and their independence; to Madame Koto, the local bar owner whose journey from innocence to corruption mirrors the realities unfolding around her; to the politics, poverty and brutal reality of life in a shanty town in post-colonial Africa; and to Azaro's own intensely imagined visions. As political corruption becomes endemic and as old tribal traditions clash with the forces of urbanisation, the author shows us the extraordinary mix of hope and despair that characterises his community and the sheer vitality of a society where, as Okri has said, "the consequences of your actions are immediate and unavoidable".

Deftly mixing mythical visions with naturalistic portrayal, the result is a book of huge scope and originality which works on many levels -- as political parable, social critique, cultural guidebook and spiritual inspiration -- but whose central triumph is its depiction of tight-knit family relations and the entrancing oddity of everyday life.