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.

It had some good imagery and some nice and poetic turns-of-phrase, but overall this was really not my cup of tea.

It feels like someone trying really really hard to write Shakespeare mixed with Oscar Wilde, the characters all sound more or less the same and their issues, conflicts and catharsis felt very flat and underwhelming. It reads very much as "emotional literacy 101".
It's halfway to a play and it might have just gone all the way and be better off for it.
Also, the whole "creating a g**** vibe" was really unnecessary and felt a bit cheap; with all the magical realism and mysticism it had, it could have chosen a less Victorian and more respectful way to showcase a fortune teller.

I liked the voice of the chorus.

‘In our world, we treat the personality as the person. We don’t distinguish the person from the personality they project. Public life is founded on this.’

"‘If there’s anything people like more than having their fortunes read, it’s having their pasts abolished.’

. From the Famished Road trilogy to more recently The Last Gift of the Master Artists, Ben Okri has written some incredible novels-searching, profound and full of reflection.

Madame Sosostris & the Festival for the Broken-Hearted is a curiosity of a book- two couples with fractured marriages; Viv and Alan; Beatrice and Stephen- living comfortable and privileged lives- but not happy. Following an encounter with the mysterious Madame Sosostris , Viv sets out to create a festival for those spurned in love in a mysterious forest in the south of France - it is to feature a masked ball.

Much of the novel focuses on the conversations between the couples as they reflect of successes, failures, personal desires and frustrations and eaves drops into dialogues and thoughts of those attending the festival and their reasons to meet the elusive fortuneteller.

This is a modern adult fairytale- full of mysticism, metaphors and magic. It is an exploration of identity and personality - private and public ; societal expectations of the wealthy and privileged and how this is often a mirage ;shielding true authenticity

It is hard to classify this short novel but Mr Okri certainly knows how to make the reader ponder what constitutes reality, the true face of individuals and especially what does it mean to love and truly be loved - can we ever know?

Hard to categorise and how readers might respond