cover image Stars of the New Curfew

Stars of the New Curfew

Ben Okri. Penguin Books, $10 (208pp) ISBN 978-0-14-011602-1

The central theme in this ``brilliant'' collection of African short stories is the difficulty of standing one's ground in a world where superstition, poverty and irresponsible use of power combine to destroy effective social bonds. ``Okri writes beautiful, dense prose. He is a modernist author, moving freely from realism to surrealism, but his work is consistently accessible,'' stated PW. (Aug.)