Classic literature has remained relevant across generations due to its timeless themes, rich language, and deep exploration of human nature. Whether it’s the tragic fate of Hamlet, the star-crossed love in Romeo and Juliet, or the political intrigue of Macbeth, these stories resonate because they reflect universal emotions—love, ambition, betrayal, and redemption. These stories challenge, inspire, and allow readers to see themselves in characters from centuries past, proving that great storytelling transcends time.

Ben Okri’s new novel blends mysticism, literary homage, and exploration of human relationships. The story revolves around Viv, who organizes a festival for the brokenhearted in a sacred French forest, drawing inspiration from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

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,” “Wild, Mental Fight,” and “An African Elegy,” and the novels “Astonishing the Gods,” “The Last Gift of the Master Artists,” “The Age of Magic,” and “Dangerous Love.” In 2023 he received a knighthood for services to literature. (Other Press, 2024)

His new novel “Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Brokenhearted” from Other Press offers a wise, enchanting novel about love, power, and our many selves—past and future, public and private. It will be released on March 18 and is available for pre-order.

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?

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.

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.