Kathmandu, Feb. 23 -- Can a book start a revolution? Ben Okri's The Freedom Artist certainly intends to.

The novel is an ardent entreaty to every single person in the world, an appeal to let go of their meaningless lives and rebel against expected but often nonsensical societal norms. Okri stands in the midst of an increasingly chaotic, mechanical, empty universe--zealously trying to transform it back to its pure and blissful form. The novel demands, almost screams for, an examined life nourished by philosophy and mindfulness.

It is a pleasure to join this effort, purely because of the way Okri writes.

This description of a reader plunging into a river inside a book, for example: "It was a luminous river, its banks undulating. They wen...