Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Brokenhearted

by Ben Okri

In this modern fable with the impish magic of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a masked ball makes two upper-class British couples see each other in a new light.

A wise, enchanting novel about love, power, and our many selves—past and future, public and private—from the Booker Prize–winning author.

There are organizations for people who grieve, for alcoholics and other kinds of addicts. But if you’ve been devastated by the love of your life walking out on you, where the hell do you go?

On the 20th anniversary of the day her first husband left her, Viv decides to host an unconventional party for those burned by love. She successfully ropes in her reluctant second husband, Alan, and their friends Beatrice and Stephen, and when she meets the famed fortuneteller Madame Sosostris—last seen in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, and rumored to be the secret to success of 5 prime ministers—she believes she’s found the perfect act to headline her masquerade.

In a sacred wood in the south of France, the partygoers disguise themselves and wait eagerly for the great clairvoyant, who might be able to mend their broken pasts and brighten their futures. But the night soon goes awry, in a comically revealing way that causes our couples to question their relationships and the direction of their lives.

Genres: Magical Realism, Fiction, Fantasy, Book Club, Adult, France

208 pages, Hardcover

First published March 18, 2025

About the author

Poet and novelist Ben Okri was born in 1959 in Minna, northern Nigeria, to an Igbo mother and Urhobo father. He grew up in London before returning to Nigeria with his family in 1968. Much of his early fiction explores the political violence that he witnessed at first hand during the civil war in Nigeria. He left the country when a grant from the Nigerian government enabled him to read Comparative Literature at Essex University in England.

He was poetry editor for West Africa magazine between 1983 and 1986 and broadcast regularly for the BBC World Service between 1983 and 1985. He was appointed Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College Cambridge in 1991, a post he held until 1993. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1987, and was awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Westminster (1997) and Essex (2002).

His first two novels, Flowers and Shadows (1980) and The Landscapes Within (1981), are both set in Nigeria and feature as central characters two young men struggling to make sense of the disintegration and chaos happening in both their family and country. The two collections of stories that followed, Incidents at the Shrine (1986) and Stars of the New Curfew (1988), are set in Lagos and London.

In 1991 Okri was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel The Famished Road (1991). Set in a Nigerian village, this is the first in a trilogy of novels which tell the story of Azaro, a spirit child. Azaro's narrative is continued in Songs of Enchantment (1993) and Infinite Riches (1998). Other recent fiction includes Astonishing the Gods (1995) and Dangerous Love (1996), which was awarded the Premio Palmi (Italy) in 2000. His latest novels are In Arcadia (2002) and Starbook (2007).

A collection of poems, An African Elegy, was published in 1992, and an epic poem, Mental Flight, in 1999. A collection of essays, A Way of Being Free, was published in 1997. Ben Okri is also the author of a play, In Exilus.

In his latest book, Tales of Freedom (2009), Okri brings together poetry and story.

Ben Okri is a Vice-President of the English Centre of International PEN, a member of the board of the Royal National Theatre, and was awarded an OBE in 2001. He lives in London.

Reviews

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those times that you read a book, want to zip through it because the writing is so good, but you have to force yourself to slow down to make sure you don't miss a thing.

It's also one of those books that I loved and loved reading but apart from a strange festival in which people are given strange advice by Madame Sosostris, the wisest woman in Europe, who reads their cards, I could not honestly tell you what it was about or even why I thoroughly enjoyed it.

To me it simply spoke of one of those times you reach in life where you wonder what you've been doing with your time and what you really need is to take a deep breath and take stock of your life. What better time to reevaluate and make a change than now?

I've not read any Ben Okri previously but I certainly shall now. I only hope I'm as bedazzled by his other work as I was by this short novel.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for the advance review copy. Most appreciated.

[Stephen the Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘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 the reality.

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?

Difficult to categorise and know how readers will respond.

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Gabrielle Jarrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long rainy day and a short novel. I would've liked it to last longer because I loved being in Okri's world. I loved the magic, the costumes, the mood, and all the outcomes. I felt hope seeing people learn who they are and who they are not; who they wanted to be and where they are now; and how their mended hearts could again receive love as they saw things in a new light.
Is their persona, their mask still useful? Is it an expression of their true self? Is it modifiable and removable? Or...has it grown into their face and successfully obliterated a true self?

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read a Ben Okri novel for a while and this one is more in the genre of Astonishing the Gods than The Famished Road.

It's about two couples, one of the women gets the idea to create a festival for those who've suffered loss but never been acknowledged, the brokenhearted. She realises it's been 20 years since a major one.

Much of this novella length story is dialogue and I couldn't help but feel like I was watching a play, even the voices seemed louder as if projected out to an audience more so than to each other.

The festival a masked event is one night only in a sacred forest in the south of France (yet another book that seems to be visiting me- only I'm not disclosing where this forest is). The special invitee is Madame Sosostris who is going to do readings for everyone.

Ultimately, the couples all have a moment of consciousness raising and are likely changed in some way from the experience.

[Kapinga · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was looking forward to the magic of the books, I was looking forward to the Nigerian folklore, I found myself in a magical European folklore that was described as beautifully as the previous books that I have read by Ben Okri.

[Caitlin Holloway · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[John Gilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes what you need is a magical night in the French woods.

[Sonia Almeida Dias (Peixinho de Prata) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first Ben Okri book, but maybe I did not start with the one most suited for me. The beggining was a little boring, but thankfully the story evolved really well, and in the end it was a pleasant read.

But I was expecting more.

[Lost · Rating 3 out of 5]

*thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for a free copy in exchange for an honest review*

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.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carnivalesque.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you believe that books come to you when it's the right time for them? That doesn't mean that you're going to read them and immediately connect: and there's a lot to be said for coming to books like Catcher In The Rye and the more dire works of Anne McCaffrey as an adult, when you can see how godawful the behavior your more adolescent self might have romanticized actually is. But sometimes, your (my) reading queue will bump books around and give you (me, oh fine, us) exactly what we need when we need it.

Which, ofc, is my roundabout way of saying that if I'd read Ben Okri's wise, compelling Madame Sosostris And The Festival For The Brokenhearted earlier in the year, I might not have felt so moved by the insights of this slender book. The tale itself revolves around two pairs of well-off slightly older Britons. Viv is a member of the House of Lords, a compulsive organizer and improver. Her husband Alan is irritable but well-bred, a veritable titan of industry. Her best friend Beatrice is retired from finance and now rivals Viv's organizational efforts with her own activities on numerous charitable boards. Beatrice's husband Stephen is a self-made intellectual who runs a newspaper. While the women are great friends, the men don't particularly get along.

On the twentieth anniversary of her greatest heartbreak, Viv has a revelation while chatting with a stranger at a party. Tho she's married to Alan happily enough, she's never really gotten over the pain of her first husband leaving her. Why, she wonders, are there no support groups for people who've had their hearts properly broken? A vision of a festival for those who've been hurt this way comes to her, but nothing really solidifies until she runs into the famed fortune teller Madame Sosostris during a party at the House of Lords. The clairvoyant agrees to come read fortunes at the woodland festival that Viv wants to organize in the south of France. It's with some trepidation thus that Viv, Alan, Beatrice and Stephen are pulled into a strange journey that will change their lives forever.

There are definite A Midsummer Night's Dream vibes to this fable, but Ben Okri neatly sidesteps any cliches of happily ever after with his messy, magical but still oddly realistic depiction of love and healing and heartbreak. Each member of this quartet is forced to step outside of their comfort zone and try on new roles: some rise to the occasion while others fail. Neither success nor failure is considered a value judgment, but does indicate how well suited people are to continue on their journeys together. It's a nuanced, generous take on love and compatibility that will soothe any heart that grieves and/or is still seeking answers for past loss.

Because, ultimately, the reason that it's so hard to let go of heartbreak is the relentless need to understand why. Why did they do that to me? Why wasn't I enough for them when they were enough for me? You can tell yourself a million times that the reason they hurt you is because they suck -- and I say this as the Queen of Good Breakups, who has always done her best to mitigate the pain of any breakups I've initiated -- but you won't necessarily believe it, and look for answers in other people and experiences, festivals and faith and externalities, before you realize what Viv does:

It wasn't fortune-telling I needed, it was self-revelation.

As a Tarot girlie myself, this hit me hard in the feels. Tarot is, in my experience, an incredible way to bolster yourself for the daily challenges you face, and to really explore your reactions to same. Sure there's a teeny tiny element of prognostication involved, but reading Tarot is, by and large, an excellent self-care practice meant to keep your heart and mind open and engaged with the world. When I ask my cards, over and over again, what I should do about my latest ex, I'm really asking them how to fulfill that part of me that craves love in all its forms, as annoyingly personified by this one guy. Mr Okri understands that, as well as the way in which it's easier for people to hear good advice when it comes from an authority we lend credence to, whether deserving or otherwise (as "deserving" isn't really the point.) We aren't raised to trust ourselves -- often for good reason -- so the intervention of the mystical and/or inarguable is often necessary to guide us to both understanding and accepting the truth.

My only criticism of this book was how bizarrely middle class it could be in terms of money. I barked with ironic laughter when the women claimed that the happiest people they know are the poorest. Honestly, in this economy?! Perhaps it was meant to show how out of touch the main characters are with reality, as only idiots think that poverty and happiness go hand in hand. That aside, this was a moving, insightful look at the importance of knowing yourself in order to better let go of the past and embrace the future. I'm glad I read it when I did, as it helps me continue moving forward with love for and faith in myself.

Madame Sosostris And The Festival For The Brokenhearted by Ben Okri was published March 18 2025 by Other Press and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!

This review first appeared at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.

[Cameron Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Love begins with a burst of hallelujah and ends with the apocalypse.’

This was a fun read and something wholly unlike anything i’ve read before. There are so many literary references that gave it an almost pretentious richness, a pretentiousness that embodied the characters perfectly.

A tad bit predictable towards the end but an interesting interrogation of love, relationships and what happens when we settle for people who aren’t right for us.

[Penelope · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Lady Fancifull · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Trevelyanwright · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a slim novella which can be read in a couple of sittings, firmly in an English magic realist style. The story is simple enough: two urbane and intellectual couples undergo a night of magic and transformation in the woods redolent of the Athenian lovers from A Midsummer Nights Dream. In place of Puck and his magic potion we have a magic fortune-teller, Madame Sosostris, who is the centrepiece of a festival planned by Viv. Along the way, as the festival of the Broken-hearted is planned and unfolds (bringing to mind the fabulous chateau party in Les Grandes Meulnes), Viv’s husband Alan and her best friend Beatrice and her husband Stephen spend most of the novel swapping epithets on love, separation, truth, identity and much more.

Okri I feel here is playing around as much with the literary landscapes as anything else. The two feuding couples in the woods from Shakespare, the fortune-teller a character from TS Eliots’ The Wasteland, one of the central characters has the name of Eliots first wife who of course was rather more than merely broken-hearted on their separation, as Eliot had her committed to a mental hospital. To Fournier, Shakespeare and Eliot you can add Chekhov, he of the world-weary aristos musing on life and fate in a country house.

The period is curious, much of their dialogue appears to be straight out of the Bloomsbury Set, but it is set in the present day. The characters are curious, likewise both contemporary and from history. Their stylised language is curious, again as if Virginia Woolf had written a novel set today. It's a curious novel, in the best sense, and if you don’t worry too much about where it is all headed there’s lots of fun along the way.

An ARC kindly provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Chris L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Haxxunne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Midsummer Night’s Dream as told by Angela Carter
—
In a sparkling fable with the sharpest bite, Okri gives us Midsummer Night’s Dream as told by Angela Carter, where love takes no prisoners and where dreams, reality and nightmares are all sides of the same coin.

At headlong pace, and almost against their wills, two couples put on a retreat for the broken-hearted, and soon the big day is upon them. The highlight of the party is Madame Sosostris, whose powers appear to be real and beyond human ken; but when the guests start arriving, the couples are unable to discern who exactly are the partygoers, if they’re real, imaginary, alien, fantastic, or even human. And when Madame Sosostris’s powers manifest, no-one can be certain who will be changed more, the broken-hearted or the two couples.

Told in bitingly incise prose with a fantastical air, Okri cuts to the heart of the matter, to why people get their hearts broken and some of the remedies they might attempt, some more metaphysical than others. The couples are deliciously spiky but still fascinating, and Madame Sosostris is both a force to be reckoned with and a total enigma. A perfect book: perfect in length, in its full speed start, and its ending that left me wanting more.

[Torie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I fear Ben Okri's writing and I really aren't compatible. I've DNFd another of his books before, and I probably should've quit this one as well. But, it was so short that I decided to see it through and hope the style would grow on me.

I can see the midsummer night's dream influence, the entire book reads like a play. The scene setting is really just that-simple sentences describing the new scene the characters are in, it came across like a script with how bare-bones the description and dialogue was. Most of the writing(maybe 90%?) consists of short, self-contained chapters filled with lines of dialogue between any two of the main characters(the two married couples). The banter may be a hit for someone, but I found it exhausting and pretentious in its attempts at constant wit and puns that rarely landed for me. I think the writing got so convoluted that it made it challenging for Okri to make sense of what his characters were doing- in the scene where Beatrice-as-madame-Sosostris reads the cards for the second visitor, the man enters the tent, sits down then stands up again quickly, and then 'rises up to leave' without ever sitting down again. Idk, this brand of high-brow british-weird just didn't work out for me

[Marie (UK) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book via Netgalley and am grateful for the chance to read it. I have read other books by this author and have sometimes found them hard going.

The book opens in the UK. Two couples - affluent, well respected, but perhaps living individual lives within their coupledom.. There is an encounter with a fortune teller of singularity and an idea is born to try to "mend" their lives with a festival at which Madame Sosostris will reveal new paths. The Festival is to be held in a remote woodland location in Southern France.

The author advises that the reader reads slowly - this is easier said than done as the narrative is short, clipped episodes that can be read at speed. At the same time the advice is good advice because the intent of the narrative is built into the words used.

It is a difficult book to review as I am not entirely sure that anyone or anything is what it appears to be.. There are depths to this book that i think will be plumbed at a later date. There are questions raised that will make the reader consider alternative options.

I liked the book - I am not sure that I loved it. I might need to read it again - more slowly. I would talk about it to others and recommend it

[Chris Chanona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short novel in the tradition of magical realism that 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 the publishers.

[Catalina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whenever you want to impart wise words, organise a masquerade ball and throw in a clairvoyant too, for good measure. And that my friends, is exactly what Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-Hearted is: a vehicle for Ben Okri to offer us, the readers, wise words to live by. And that's alright, because I've had fun! I loved the dialogues, the banter between the main 2 couples. I've agreed with many of the hard words thrown around in their arguments. And I loved how growth/change, in its different variations was experienced by the characters.

But, but, but I cannot, I repeat, I cannot accept the moral of the story: "There's no such thing as chance". I am sorry but by the very fabric of life, there is inherent randomness at subatomic level that we cannot escape no matter how much we want to fool ourselves we can escape the randomness of nature!

Novel from NetGalley with many thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read it.

[whatzoreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

What’s the best way to deal with emotional ruin? Throw an extravagant, anonymous, masquerade-style grief-rave. Absolute genius.

Madame Sosostris & the Festival for the Broken Hearted is the perfect book for anyone who’s ever had their heart-shattered and thought, “What I need right now is a one-night-only magical woodland party, a crowd of heartbreak survivors in full costume, a mystical clairvoyant, and free-flowing wine.” Cue glamorous emotional meltdown - fabulousness, guaranteed.

Surreal, hilarious and a bit mysterious, throw it in a blender with some Shakespearean whimsy and a twist of dry wit this book was full of deeply charming chaos. Think ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ but everyone is sad, stylish and quoting Eliot, there’s probably someone crying in a forest in a unicorn costume.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.
I give this 3.5 cryptic tarot cards out of 5

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️

Thank you Head of Zeus for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was like a fever dream, entangled with the mysteries of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Madame Sosostris - a character from T S Eliot’s The Waste Land - is the star attraction for the festival of the broken hearted, organised by Viv, a wealthy and powerful member of the House of Lords.

Viv persuades her second husband, Stephen, and their friends, Beatrice and Alan, to join in the festival, much to the men’s dismay.

I didn’t understand a lot of what happened, but in the best kind of way. The writing was beautiful and off-beat, classical yet modern and full of whimsical intrigue. There were a lot of literary references and themes of love, fear and regret.

The book was also very short, but it had a length and pace that matched the themes.

[Alan M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben Okri is such a wonderful writer that I came to this with huge expectations. When I finished, I put the book down with a shrug of the shoulders and a feeling that I had had a mere glimpse of what could have been a great novel.

Two couples , Viv and Alan and Beatrice and Stephen, organise a mystical party in the woods, inviting famous clairvoyant Madame Sosostris (her of 'The Waste Land' fame). Will they pull off a magical night for their friends and all invited? Will Madame Sosostris turn up?

There was so much potential, notwithstanding the obvious links to T.S. Eliot and Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream', but other than lots of dialogue at the start of the book, and the unfolding events in the woods, I just missed the point somehow. It is very stylised, a little hard to connect with, and after I had closed the book and shrugged I struggled to recall what it was I had just read.

Okri can write like few contemporary novelists, but this just left me a little cold and, as a result, a little disappointed. Somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars just because of the writing.

[⋒ Natalie (she-her) ⋒ · Rating 3 out of 5]

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ben Okri has always been, and always will be, one of my all time favourite writers. However, with Madame Sosostris I just couldn’t help but feel he has gifted us a half-formed thing. Here is the bare bones of something that could have been spectacular, but feels instead rather shallow. The writing is superb, of course, as it always is, but the overly long clever/witty dialogues feel more like an Oscar Wilde play than a Ben Okri novel. Besides, at less than 200 pages, it really is more a novella than a novel. If only he had fleshed this story out with more backstory, more prose, then I think I would have loved it immensely. As it stands, I read it in one sitting (despite reading it slow!) and I fear it will be forgotten before long. Farewell, Madame Sosostris.

[Cebrina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Simply not for me. I don’t think I got the story — which is entirely a flaw on my part, not the book’s.

The premise ensnared me, and there were moments that struck a deep chord, but overall I felt like the words just washed over me. Partially, I think it was because I didn’t connect with the characters at all, and for the most part I found them unbearable in their desperation to seem like the cleverest person in the room.

I think I would have liked it better if it had been a play, for indeed it spent much time and space on dialogue, and very much in the fashion of a greek tragedy with its sticomythyiaesque style. On the other hand, those passages I enjoyed the most were those that had very little dialogue.

I will say that I liked the absurdity of it, and the way the characters seemed to move between personas, stories and struggles.

[Paul D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before the book begins there is an instruction to 'read slowly'. In an age of scrolling and skimming, this is a nice reminder to take time to enjoy a book and suggests there may be a lot to take in over the coming pages. With the subject and blurb suggesting a link to T.S Eliot's The Waste Land I was expecting something quite complex and rich in symbolism and allusion.

The opening chapters therefore threw me with quick dialogue, sadly often forced, convenient and at times unconvincing. The same could be said for the occasional references to The Waste Land.

Despite this there are some nice observations and phrases around the mask and persona we present, and sufficient mystery in the atmosphere to keep me reading. I don't think I'd recommend it though.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terrible; cannot believe anyone thinks this has any substance. Stylistically, it's evoking Shakespeare with everything it's got, without realizing the many obvious flaws of pretending a novella is a stage play. The opening four chapters are, in order:

1. The main character having an idea
2. The main character telling her friend about the idea
3. The main character telling her husband about the idea
4. The friend telling her husband about the idea

and all repeating a lot of the same phrases, striving for clever, achieving inane. That, and the hackneyed gender politics, and the constant repetition, and the deeply unsubtle ideas, are all maddening; on the flip side, it's an incredibly quick read, because it has absolutely nothing interesting to say.