A charming, immersive novel that takes me back to reading fairytales as a child. The dialogue is snappy and sharp - perhaps at the expense of realism, but that's not the aim of this book. It felt like walking into a dream.

A short novel, with lines and lines of conversation, some of which follow on so closely and for so long, that sometimes it's difficult to work out who is speaking, yet which holds the attention as one wonders whether the Festival for The Broken-Hearted will ever actually occur. And when it does, will Madame Sosostris ever arrive? And what will happen if she does not?

Ben Okri's novel (too short for a novel, too long for a novelette) is almost an adult fairy tale, looking at two couples whose marriages are broken. The more powerful wife, Viv, who happens to sit in the House of Lords, decides on a whim to organises a Festival for all those who are broken hearted, and enrolls her friend Beatrice to help. The Festival becomes a masked ball; and behind the masks the couples meet each other and may or may not recognise their spouses. And there are a number of faerie spirits and ghosts floating around too. Quite why (or indeed how) Viv manages to be in the Lords is never explained nor is it really fully fleshed out in her character and capabilities - other than being powerful enough to organise the Festival.

There are hints of A Midsummer Night's Dream, in the forest and in disguise; of T S Eliott's Madame Sosostris in The Waste Land, the wisest woman in all of Europe; of myths and magic and mistaken identity. And underneath it all lie the questions of personality and identity, of love and marriage, of happiness and broken hearts and broken dreams.

The book begins, 'Read Slowly.' I wondered at first if the word 'read' is to be pronounced 'reed' or 'red' and thought it slightly pretentious, however it was meant to be 'red.' Maybe the conversational lines would be easier to understand if 'red' more slowly and considerately, but otherwise I continued at my usual pace, not wishing to have it dictated by the author. But perhaps if I had followed the instruction and 'red' more slowly I would have gained more from the book?

Sadly, the book didn't grip me; the characters were not developed except in their brief sentences of conversation which did not go very deep to find out more about them. Some of the banter was clever and witty, sometimes it seemed bizarre and sometimes just way off. I am still not fully sure of the reason the author wrote this. Unless it was to have it turned into a play or a film.

With thanks to the publishers and to Netgalley for an advanced reader copy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ben Okri for this ARC!

This reads like tale of legend, both incredibly current in how it tackles the theme of heartbreak but full of almost a mythological kind of mystique as well. I really felt a sense of playfulness when I was reading this and I really enjoyed how this narrative moved.

Madame Sosostris & The Festival for the Broken-Hearted takes Eliot's character from The Wasteland and reimagines her is a modern setting. Two high-achieving couples seem discontented with their lives and with each other, Viv in particular. On the twentieth anniversary of her first husband leaving her, she comes up with the idea of a festival for the broken-hearted, noting 'the impossibility of recovering from real heartbreak'. Madame Sosostris appears, as if from nowhere, and seems to already know Viv's mind and, making very high demands, agrees to appear at the Festival. She is to be the star of the show and is a huge draw for potential festival-goers. But when festival plans go wrong, Viv must find a way to rescue what must inevitably be a disaster and one that will upturn her successful life. The outcome is perhaps unsurprising, but is very satisfying for all that.

Do you need to know Eliot's 'The Wasteland' to understand this story? Absolutely not. The more curious reader might wish to do some research afterwards, but Okri's re-imagining of the wasteland of post-war Britain and the death of culture into the 21st century can stand alone. Eliot's wasteland is full of allusion and reference, much of which might seem impossible to disentangle and understand. Okri's magical realism shows us the way, even when much of the festival seems nebulous. If we take his advice and 'Read slowly', we will be rewarded. In many ways this is a book of modern manners - or lack of them. Being beguiled by fame for fame's sake and chasing rainbows; losing sight of what is actually important. Is the 21st century just another version of Eliot's wasteland, Okri seems to be asking. But he asks it gently, poking fun at what is seen to be important, what life is apparently all about. There is some hope in his vision.


Magical realism imbues the book

Hmmm.... not quite sure what to make of this one.

It's sometimes compelling but sometimes I felt I wanted to skip through it as there appeared to be some repetition. I did read it quickly - though the advice was to read slowly - as it seemed to lend itself more to a rapid read. A mixture of The Wasteland, The Dream, and maybe a bit of The Magus thrown in (though maybe that's just my interpretation), this short novel is certainly intriguing. It raises questions of identity and authenticity (Hello, Sartre) and plays with reality.

A fortune teller, first seen giving readings in the House of Lords(!), is invited to a masked ball for the broken-hearted, held in an enchanted forest. She speaks ultimately through other people (don't want to give things away) and all the attendees, living or dead, have their futures told. Two couples are at the centre of this and the story(?) focusses on them.

There is a great deal of unattributed dialogue (I believe the book was performed as a play at one time) and though it's not terribly difficult to work out who's saying what, it makes for a rather odd read. With very little description or background information, or bits of business to break it up, the dialogue naturally becomes a rapid-fire exchange. However, I did not feel that the actual words were particularly outstanding - certainly not sufficiently awe-inspiring to make it a literary masterpiece. The ideas (identity etc) are interesting enough, but not new, and the whole thing is rather puzzling. I didn't not enjoy it but I didn't especially enjoy it either, and I'm glad it wasn't longer. So, it does not, perhaps, achieve whatever it's meant to achieve.

Unless it's just me and I simply didn't get it.

Ben Okri is such a masterful writer and this book is a delight to read. On the surface it is quite a whimsical and witty story. But it is actually full of depth and exploration of the shadow. We are drawn into the esoteric experience and further drawn into the significance of the wearing of masks, both literal and metaphorical. Okri advises us to read this book slowly. I couldn't put it down so I think I may have to read it again ... slowly this time.

This is a short novel that is in the tradition of magical realism and is thoroughly engaging and well written.

The main characters are two married couples and the two wives, Viv and Beatrice, are the best of friends. Their respective husbands, Alan and Stephen, lock horns rather than being friends. Viv, a high flying member of society, in the House of Lords no less, conceives of a Festival for the Broken-Hearted on the twentieth anniversary of the day her first husband left her.

The Festival for the Broken-Hearted. takes place on one Midsummer’s Night in the South of France because this is where the fortune teller Madame Sosostris has sent Viv.

Everyone is in fancy dress. Anonymous. Music plays. Guests wander the beautiful sacred woods and a very special guest is the famous Madame Sosostris, known as the wisest woman in Europe. She of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land. All have questions, failures, disappointments.

To tell more would reveal the plot so best just to read it! I got hints of Marlon James, John Fowles alongside Shakespeare. Despite other reviews it is an easy read and I recommend it. I read an ARC provided by NetGalley and tge publishers.

Ben Okri has a way of making the reader believe everything that he writes, even when he is writing about magical things.
This book is a short book easily read in one sitting.
I loved it.
The depth of meaning was phenomenal.
As Ben Okri says, the story is best read slowly. It is also probably best to read it again an again when you feel down.
My thanks to the author for the hours of enjoyment that the book has brought me, I received an advance review copy for free.
I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Exquisite, dreamlike, impossible to review. I will be reading everything else he writes. A new all time favourite.

Trying too hard for wit, epigram and enchanting playfulness 2.5

Unfortunately, this short novel, a kind of mash-up of a Midsummer Night’s Dream with a fortune teller from Eliot’s The Wasteland, seems too much a self-conscious exercise. Particularly in its use of rat-a tat clever dialogue between the 4 Central characters, two middle aged couples who are successful, urbane and represent various areas of upper middle class life. There are pages of ‘witty’ repartee, sometimes between one or other of the married couples, sometimes the two women, sometimes the two men.

Unfortunately, Okri rarely, within the dialogue, says which person is speaking, other than at the very start of each conversation. Perhaps the instruction to ‘Read Slowly’ at the start of the novel is precisely because the reader will otherwise endlessly not be sure which person is speaking. Particularly when there are lines and lines of supposed banter and wit, without an obvious character delineation linked to each statement. For example, in a conversation between the two husbands:

“I Knew an astrologer whose wife was cheating on him. Why couldn’t he read that in the charts?”
“I knew a healer who was always getting a cold”
“My dermatologist had a bad skin condition for years. It gives you know confidence”
“I had a banker friend who was always asking me for a loan”
“Did you give him one?”
“At the highest rate of interest. He still hasn’t paid me back”
“I knew a mechanic whose car kept breaking down”
“I knew a poet who never had a pen on him. Was always borrowing mine. Made you wonder –“

Unfortunately, all this hard work at playful enchantment had neither the wit and charm of the lovers’ quarrels in Midsummer Night’s Dream, nor the depth of feeling in love’s disappointments and misunderstandings.

This just all felt too much like a cerebral concept given form.

Ben Okri leans heavily on the traditions of Shakespear's A Midsummer Night's Dream in his latest novel Madame Sosistris and the Festival of the Broken Hearted. This odd little novel concerns itself with a couple of very well heeled couples who need a costume ball and a magical forest to learn about themselves and their relationships. It does leave the question as to why readers should care.

Liv, who is a member of the House of Lords (unclear why this is relevant except that means that she is wealthy and connected) is remembering a lost love and, looking for a project, decides to hold a festival for people who have had their hearts broken. She enlists her best friend Beatrice and their two husbands and with the guideance of calirevoyant to the stars Madame Sosostris, organise a fancy-dress festival in a "magical" forest in the south of France. When Madame Sosostris doesn't show, the four have to come up with a new plan, but not before a bunch of shenanigans involving people recognising or not recognising each other in fancy dress and then the "channelling" of Madame Sosostris.

In the end it is hard to know what Okri is trying to say in this book. He is clearly going for a witty Shakespearean vibe (plenty of references to other works also), but does not quite pull it off. And the denoument - which seems to be rich people learn about themselves and their relationships just left me cold.

I found this weird and not in a good way. The dialogue was very strange, especially between the two featured couples. and the whole idea of a festival for the broken hearted, especially coming from a peer in the House of Lords, was unexpected. The character of Madame Sosostris added a touch of magic., The people at the festival were not named and appeared to just drift around with nothing much happening except for a bit of music playing. I admit to only skimming most of the text trying to get a hook into the story, but there really wasn't much of one.

I don’t know how to feel about this book. It was short so I was able to finish it when maybe I may have given up if it had been longer. I also didn’t really understand it. I’m sure however that this book will do well and be enjoyed by many others

I was intrigued by the fact that the start of this book said "Read Slowly". Me being me, I took that literally and wondered aloud about it to my housemate - as it turns out, "Read Slowly" might actually mean "take a pause every now and then throughout this book to reflect upon the sentiments of what the characters are saying." To enjoy this novel, I think that this is crucial - it's not a novel you can zip through and take at face value, unless you happen to be a philiosophy student of some kind who engages in conversations like this on the regular.

I would like to say that I *got* this novel, and I think to an extent I do. I can appreciate what it is, and what the book is supposed to be, in that it is an introspective look at truth, humanity, identity and, of course, having a broken heart. There is a lot of witty dialogue (a lot of dialogue, full stop) that broaches all of these topics between our four main characters, two couples who are, at heart, deeply unhappy in their relationships. Due to the brevity of the book, and the reliance upon dialogue, however, these four characters remain underdeveloped. They might be speaking about deep facets of themselves, and about their relative truths, but in comparison to other books of this length - Of Mice and Men springs to mind - there is little about them that is memorable.

People have compared this to a Midsummer Night's Dream, a favourite Shakespeare play of mine, and whilst I see the comparison, these are not at all the same vibe. Two couples wandering around in a woodland and having realisations about themselves, whilst some vague mysticism plays out in the background, does not in any way compare to the chaos of the original play. If anything, it reminds me more of the poem The Listeners by Walter de la Mare - a space that is haunted by people unable to move on from their broken love.

Of the entire book, only one scene really stands out to me, and that is when 'Madame Sosostris' talks to the first three festival-goers. Those conversations are some damn good writing, and I feel like most people would resonate with at least one of them. I enjoy reading tarot cards, and it was fascinating to see which ones the author pulled upon (and invented, at times) to weave into the pasts and futures of the characters.

Perhaps I'm a cynic, but this feels like one of those books that was written with the purpose of being studied. Perhaps I shall change my mind in a decade or so and come back to this book with a newer, more profound understanding. Perhaps I'm still in the process of becoming someone who would rate this book five stars. Who knows.

Tl;dr: Witty, philosophical book closer to The Listeners than Midsummer Night's Dream - not my personal cup of tea, but others will enjoy it. 3 stars.

Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-Hearted is a captivating modern fable filled with wit and wonder reminiscent of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The Booker Prize-winning author crafts a delightful yet insightful tale about love, identity, and the secret selves we hide, set against the backdrop of a masquerade that promises magic but delivers something far more revealing.

The story follows Viv, who, on the 20th anniversary of her first husband’s departure, decides to throw an unusual party for those scorched by love. Joined by her hesitant second husband, Alan, and their friends Beatrice and Stephen, Viv invites Madame Sosostris, a famed clairvoyant and rumoured confidante to five prime ministers, to add a mystical twist to the night.

The masquerade unfolds in a sacred wood in the south of France, where hidden faces give way to hidden truths as the couples hope for guidance from the mysterious fortune-teller.

However, as the night progresses, events spiral in unexpected, humorous directions, forcing each character to confront the state of their relationships and aspirations. Madame Sosostris’s presence adds a layer of enchantment and unease, making the evening both an escape and a reckoning for the guests.

This enchanting book blends comedy and depth, exploring how our past loves shape us and how easily we hide from ourselves. Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-Hearted is a wise and magical reflection on love, heartbreak, and the many masks we wear. It’s a thoroughly engaging read for anyone who enjoys tales where romance, introspection, and the supernatural intertwine.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

This is a masterful book beautifully written. An allegory exploring many aspects of life: connection, love, fear of letting go and of being authentic, time, immanence and presence. At it's heart, Madame Sosostris, who exists in more ways than one, and who, it appears, speaks through reviewers as well as the characters in the book. We are best revealed by our reactions and responses. I loved it. It is exactly as long as it needs to be.

The quote at the beginning prepares the reader for what is to come:

Whoever cannot seek the unseen sees
Nothing, for the known way is an impasse

Heraclitus

We are also advised to read slowly, but I didn't. I offer no apology for that.

Madame Sosostris & the Festival for the Broken-Hearted is a short novel about a dreamlike festival held in the South of France. Viv orchestrates a festival for the broken-hearted, roping in her friend Beatrice and their respective husbands to take part in the fancy dress, hidden identity festival with a renowned fortune teller as the star attraction, but they might be faced with realities beyond the hazy magic of the night.

I didn't realise how much this book was going to feel like a poem, with Okri bringing together a highly literary-feeling concept and well-off characters in a way that feels like it comes from decades, if not centuries ago. This is an impressive achievement, but it didn't always make for a novel I enjoyed reading, with boring posh person banter taking up a lot of the book that isn't surreal sequences of characters interacting in costume. I think some people will love this book and its artistic textures, and others will find it falling back on clichés like the stereotypical fortune teller and not really doing anything by the end. Unfortunately, I'm more towards the latter, though it is fun to read and feels carefully crafted rather than bloated with references.

Booker Prize winning author Ben Okri returns with a trifle of a novel. It's about Viv who wants to create a festival for people who have had their hearts broken. She teams up with her friend Beatrice to create this magical event with Madame Sosostris as the centre of attention. When things go awry, the women must take the reins and help people find their true purposes in life.

Okri has a light touch with this novel, and the party is the highlight of the book as it feels like a combination of Oscar Wilde, "Enchanted April" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Okri creates a magical spell over his characters and his readers for a time. Okri made me wish the party scenes had been much longer, as they have a nice energy.

However, there are drawbacks to the novel. It's much too short as I would have liked more character development from Viv and Beatrice as well as their husbands Alan and Stephen. The first part of the book is a bit too focused on witty remarks/banter that it feels too much at time. I wanted less of the banter, and more insight into the characters. Since the focus is on the witty lines, the four main characters feel underdeveloped. With that said, the book has charm and a nice vibe so it would make for a pleasant winter read.

A fable drenched in the absurd, the spiritual and pure magic. This seemed like it was really fun to write. It was lots of fun to read. A Shakespearean, Midsummer Night's Dream plot is woven into T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland as Madame Sosostris, the wisest woman in Europe, promises to attend a festival for the broken hearted in a magical wood in rural France. Masks and disguises, spells and songs, the dead and the living all mingle in this riot of a tale. Absolutely glorious mythmaking.

This is a quick and dialogue-intense read about two privileged couples and Madame Sosostris acts as a plot element in their ruminations about life.
The blurb interested me, I love magical realism and the characters sounded interesting, but unfortunately, this was not my cup of tea. I was not interested in the characters; did not find them likeable or curious. I went back to read some of the dialogue and parts again before reflecting on the book in full. My thoughts have not changed.
I hope other readers find more value in this.
The writing style was not my cup of tea as well.