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A journalist is trying to find out what happened to Lidia, who disappeared in Luanda in 1992 - a point in time when the civil war flared up again with unprecedented ferocity. The story tells of the disappointment of the two protagonists, which represents the disappointment of a whole nation."
"Ingenious, consistently taut and witty" TLS Strange, elliptical, charming" Guardian Set in contemporary Angola, this novel is populated with characters whose victories never quite settle. Like any one of us, they can forget things that have happened to them, and remember things that never did. Theirs is a world where the truth seems to shift from moment to moment, where history itself is up for grabs. Agualusa's slippery narrator takes us on a vivid and enthralling journey across the shifting landscape of memory and history, and - from his unique perspective - reveals a breathtaking love story too. Translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn WINNER OF THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL 2016 The brilliant new novel from the winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. On the eve of Angolan independence, Ludo bricks herself into her apartment, where she will remain for the next thirty years. She lives off vegetables and pigeons, burns her furniture and books to stay alive and keeps herself busy by writing her story on the walls of her home. The outside world slowly seeps into Ludo's life through snippets on the radio, voices from next door, glimpses of a man fleeing his pursuers and a note attached to a bird's foot. Until one day she meets Sabalu, a young boy from the street who climbs up to her terrace.
Creole paints a vivid and dramatic picture of a decadent social order in tatters. Extraordinary characters, real and fictional, look on as their world collapses.
While swimming in the clear blue waters of the Rainbow Hotel, Daniel Benchimol finds a waterproof camera, floating seemingly lost in the sea. He goes on to discover that the camera belongs to Moira, a Mozambican artist famous for a series of photos depicting her own dreams. On seeing the images, Daniel realises that Moira is also the mysterious woman whom he has been dreaming about repeatedly. The two meet, and Daniel becomes involved in a unusual dream experiment with a Brazilian neuroscientist, who's working with Moira on a machine to film and photograph people’s dreams. Meanwhile, Daniel’s daughter Karinguiri, one of Angola’s young dreamers, is arrested along with six friends for staging a protest during a presidential press conference in Luanda. The group go on hunger strike, attracting worldwide press attention, showing the power of young people when they raise their voices against the regime. The Society of Reluctant Dreamers is a surreal, vivid novel about the slipperiness of truth and reality, art versus dictatorship, courage versus fear, change and the old order, amidst the politics of Angola's tumultuous past, present and future.
"Celebrated Angolan musician Faustino Manso has just died, leaving seven wives and eighteen children scattered across southern Africa. His youngest daughter, Laurentina, arrives in Angola from her home in Portugal to trace the story of the father she never knew." "My Father's Wives is the story of Laurentina's journey, but this fiction also runs in parallel with Jose Eduardo Agualusa's story of the novel's genesis, as writer and characters travel the southern African coast, from Angola, through Namibia and South Africa, to Mozambique, meeting extraordinary people and discovering Faustino's secrets along the way." "This novel heralds the rebirth of Africa, a continent afflicted by terrible problems but blessed with a talent for music, by the ever-renewed strength of its women and the secret power of ancient gods."--BOOK JACKET.
WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2017 A finalist for the Man Booker International Prize 2016 The brilliant new novel from the winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. On the eve of Angolan independence, Ludo bricks herself into her apartment, where she will remain for the next thirty years. She lives off vegetables and pigeons, burns her furniture and books to stay alive and keeps herself busy by writing her story on the walls of her home. The outside world slowly seeps into Ludo’s life through snippets on the radio, voices from next door, glimpses of a man fleeing his pursuers and a note attached to a bird’s foot. Until one day she meets Sabalu, a young boy from the street who climbs up to her terrace.
"The limitless possibilities of fiction are brilliantly utilised . . . Ingenious" Irish Times "Agualusa's funny and lively tale turns increasingly ominous ahead of an explosive conclusion" Guardian ***A Financial Times Fiction in Translation Book of the Year 2023*** Daniel lives with artist Moira on her native Island of Mozambique. They are awaiting the birth of their child, while also organising the island's first literary festival. But as soon as the first festival guests arrive, the coast is hit by a cyclone. The island is spared, but the bridge to the mainland is left impassable, and telephone and internet connections are severed. The islanders - and the writers who have come for the fes...
Magnificent and Beggar Land is a powerful account of fast-changing dynamics in Angola, an important African state that is a key exporter of oil and diamonds and a growing power on the continent. Based on three years of research and extensive first-hand knowledge of Angola, it documents the rise of a major economy and its insertion in the international system since it emerged in 2002 from one of Africa's longest and deadliest civil wars. The government, backed by a strategic alliance with China and working hand in glove with hundreds of thousands of expatriates, many from the former colonial power, Portugal, has pursued an ambitious agenda of state-led national reconstruction. This has result...
African-Atlantic Cultures and the South Carolina Lowcountry examines perceptions of the natural world revealed by the religious ideas and practices of African-descended communities in South Carolina from the colonial period into the twentieth century. Focusing on Kongo nature spirits known as the simbi, Ras Michael Brown describes the essential role religion played in key historical processes, such as establishing new communities and incorporating American forms of Christianity into an African-based spirituality. This book illuminates how people of African descent engaged the spiritual landscape of the Lowcountry through their subsistence practices, religious experiences and political discourse.