Ben Okri

Okri grew up between Lagos and London, where his father studied law, and returned to Nigeria as a child in time to witness the Biafran war firsthand before the family settled back in London for good in his teens. He published his first novels while barely out of his teens himself, working odd jobs and going hungry in London at points before The Famished Road found him wider recognition.

That 1991 novel, narrated by a spirit-child who keeps choosing to be reborn into a poor Nigerian family rather than return to the world of spirits, won the Booker Prize and drew directly on Yoruba abiku mythology rather than the Latin American magical realism it was often compared to. He has continued writing novels, poetry, and essays from London, including two further volumes following Azaro's story.