本·奧剋瑞1959年生於非洲西部國傢尼日利亞。他幼年在倫敦度過，並就讀於當地小學，七歲隨父迴到尼日利亞。中學畢業後，奧剋瑞在一傢塗料店做店員，十八歲移居英格蘭，在艾賽剋斯大學(EssexUniversity)研修比較文學。十九歲時即已寫齣第一部長篇小說《鮮花與陰影》。由於生活窘迫，他未能讀完大學。但他自幼深受非洲民間敘事傳統的熏陶，閱讀麵十分廣泛，並通過小說創作嚮世人展示瞭傑齣的文學纔華。他的代錶作包括《飢餓的路》(1991年)、《非洲挽歌》(1992年)、《迷魂之歌》(1993年)、《神靈為之驚異》(1995年)、《危險的愛》(1996年)等。其中《飢餓的路》於1991年獲英國最具權威的文學奬——布剋奬。此外，奧剋瑞還撰寫瞭許多文論和大量短篇小說。他榮膺多個文學奬項，近年來在世界文壇備受矚目。他目前作為訪問作傢(VisitingWriter-in-residence)客居於劍橋的三靈學院(TrinityGllege)。

In the decade since it won the Booker Prize, Ben Okri's Famished Road has become a classic. Like Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children or Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude , it combines brilliant narrative technique with a fresh vision to create an essential work of world literature.

The narrator, Azaro, is an abiku , a spirit child, who in the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria exists between life and death. The life he foresees for himself and the tale he tells is full of sadness and tragedy, but inexplicably he is born with a smile on his face. Nearly called back to the land of the dead, he is resurrected. But in their efforts to save their child, Azaro's loving parents are made destitute. The tension between the land of the living, with its violence and political struggles, and the temptations of the carefree kingdom of the spirits propels this latter-day Lazarus's story.