Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Books: Every Leaf A Hallelujah

Ben Okri, Booker Prize-winning author of the new imaginative environmental fable Every Leaf A Hallelujah and reissue (including a new introduction penned by Okri) of Astonishing The Gods: A Novel returns with a timely tale. Every Leaf A Hallelujah spins a wonder-filled adventure story, echoing climate activist Greta Thunberg’s message that “no one is too small to make a difference…”, as it follows a seven-year-old girl named Mangoshi, journeying into a forest to retrieve a flower to cure her mother’s illness. In signature Okri-style, 
Every Leaf A Hallelujah exudes a shape-shifting quality, operating on many planes at once, delivering a transcendent message in an allegoric tale. Accompanied by Italian-Nigerian artist Diana Ejaita’s gorgeous, vibrant illustrations of flora, Every Leaf A Hallelujah weds the power of Okri’s mystic vision to a story that weaves wonder, adventure, and environmentalism.

Okri recently penned a short essay for the GUARDIAN on the role of the cultivating creativity and imagination in the face of the climate crisis, what he coins, “existential creativity”; “…a new art and a new psychology to penetrate the apathy and the denial that are preventing us making the changes that are inevitable if our world is to survive…a new art to waken people both to the enormity of what is looming and the fact that we can still do something about it…” You’ll find that full article below and linked here

Also related, is this video of Okri reading his original “Letter to the Earth.” Recorded at the Globe Theatre on the South Bank, the video also features his partner, Charlotte Jarvis and young daughter, Mirabella Okri performing.