This tale of the time immediately before the arrival of the Atlantic slave trade restores a lost history to Booker Prize-winning author Ben Okri’s Nigerian homeland.

Explore the extraordinary imagination of Booker Prize-winner and visionary author Ben Okri – one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary literature.

By a riverbank in Africa, two lovers meet for the first time and make a promise to meet again the next day. But only one of them shows up.

This sounds like the beginning of a love story, but it’s more than that, for this breath-taking tale takes the reader into the heart of a vibrant world, a complex and intriguing civilisation of warriors and kings, philosophers and artists, parents and lovers. A world and culture which is about to change forever, for, glimpsed on the horizon, seen but unrecognised, beautiful ships with white sails are waiting.

‘One of the most beautiful and profound novels’ Washington Post

"A magical take on Africa before the arrival of the Atlantic slave ships - a world of art and artists, lovers, storytellers and philosophers... The beauty of Okri's prose is [...] the overwhelming star of the show" - Independent

"Told with a bracing sincerity... and gnomic wisdom expressed in supple but sturdy prose" - Daily Telegraph

"[Okri's] writing takes on the great riddles of existence - freedom and consciousness, truth and illusion, suffering and transcendence - spinning them into shimmering, allegorical texts." - New York Times