Tiger Work - Stories, Essays and Poems About Climate Change

Informationen zum Autor Ben Okri is a playwright, poet, novelist, essayist, short-story writer, anthologist, and aphorist. He has also written film scripts. His works have won numerous national and international prizes, including the Booker Prize for Fiction. His books include the eco-fable Every Leaf a Hallelujah , the play Changing Destiny , the genre-bending climate fiction Tiger Work , the poetry collections A Fire in My Head and Mental Fight , and the novels Astonishing the Gods , The Last Gift of the Master Artists , and Dangerous Love . In 2023 he received a knighthood for services to literature. Klappentext "In this poignant, timely collection, the renowned Booker Prize-winning author evokes the magic of nature and the urgency of protecting our environment. Twenty thousand years after a catastrophe wiped out the human race, visitors uncover their final messages scattered across the planet, in flooded cities and disintegrating books. These writings reveal the tragedies of people who continued to live as they always did-fearfully, selfishly-even as the end of their world loomed. These haunting stories within a story, together with a powerful selection of poems, fables, and essays, are a necessary reminder of the beauty of the earth and the importance of addressing the climate crisis with clarity, artistry, and passion"-- Leseprobe THE SONGBIRD’S SILENCE Once upon a time, not that long ago, the forest was full of noises. You could hear the birds sing, or the faraway growl of a wolf, or the call of cats, or the constant trilling of insects. The forest was a busy place at night because all the creatures were claiming their space. They were saying, with the noises they made, that this was their home. Then human beings began to capture the creatures of the forest. Some liked to have the butterflies as friends. Some wanted the tigers as pets. But the creature they wanted most was the songbird. It was not the most beautiful bird in the world but it had the most enchanting song. Its song was so wonderful that people wanted the songbird in their house so they could live always with the strange and charming music it made. Soon everybody wanted one. There was once a little boy who lived near the forest. His name was Duba. He used to love going to sleep at night and listening to the many mysterious noises of the forest. As he went to sleep at night he would imagine all the things the animals were doing. It seemed to him that as he was going to sleep they were waking up. He imagined the monkeys chattering and telling one another stories. He imagined the birds in long singing competitions. And he imagined the wild dogs growling in their nightly attempts to talk to the moon. He loved these imaginings of his and they helped him sleep nicely at night. Then one day it was Duba’s birthday and as a present his father and mother gave him a songbird. It came in a big cage. Duba was very happy with his present. He had never had a pet before and never come that close to a bird before either. And it was such a special thing to listen to the songbird’s melodies in the morning and at night. He was very grateful to his mother and father for giving him such a wonderful present. He grew very attached to the bird and wanted to be with it all the time. He was only really happy when the bird was singing. Duba was so fascinated by the bird’s songs that he wanted to know what it was singing about and why its singing was so sweet. Sometimes when the songbird sang Duba would be so moved that he would begin crying. The beauty of the song was so haunting that Duba took to asking everyone if they knew what the bird was singing about. His mother and father couldn’t tell him. None of the elders could tell him either. Then one day Duba met a wise old man near the forest. “O wise man,” he said, “do you know why the songbird’s song is so sweet? Wha...

Product details

• Authors: Ben Okri
• Publisher: Other press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 20.06.2023
• EAN: 9781635423365
• ISBN: 978-1-63542-336-5
• No. of pages: 224
• Dimensions: 133 mm x 197 mm x 21 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature