Which Ben Okri novel won the 1991 Booker Prize?

Which Ben Okri novel won the 1991 Booker Prize? The answer is The Famished Road.

Published in 1991, The Famished Road is Ben Okri’s richly symbolic novel about Azaro, a spirit-child—or abiku—who is born into a poor Nigerian family but remains connected to the spirit world. The story moves between everyday hardship, political tension and visions populated by the living and the dead.

Okri was 32 when he won, making him the youngest Booker winner at the time. The novel’s setting reflects post-colonial Nigeria, where poverty, corruption and election violence shape ordinary life. Its narration deliberately blurs realism, myth and dream, which is why it is sometimes misclassified as straightforward fantasy.

A common mix-up is with Okri’s other novels, including Songs of Enchantment, a sequel to The Famished Road, and Dangerous Love. Neither won the Booker Prize. The 1991 shortlist also included Martin Amis’s Time’s Arrow and Roddy Doyle’s The Van.