BEN OKRI (b.1959)
Songs of Enchantment. London: Jonathan Cape, 1993.
‘Want this to be a magic book, a book that works magic. A lucky book’: first edition of the second book in a trilogy that started with Booker Prize-winning The Famished Road (1991), signed and annotated by the author with over 600 words of enchanting commentary. Songs of Enchantment continues the adventures of the spirit child, Azaro, through whose extraordinary consciousness we experience the chaos of emotional distress and political turmoil. The author’s splendid pencil annotations, supplemented by simple stick-figure drawings throughout, provide glimpses into the mysteries of the novel (‘every book I write coded with certain secrets’) and are often charged with a poetical impulse. He writes of his memories of writing the book: ‘was in a sort of flight, of soaring, wing-strong, heart-free, vision far and clear, a new time opened up, my feet strong, a sort of force-field around me, like an ancient spell.’

Octavo. Original black cloth, lettered in silver on spine, pictorial dust jacket.

Buyer’s premium is payable, with a significant portion donated by Christie’s to English PEN, but note that no VAT is payable on hammer price or buyer’s premium.
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