Mia Couto

A haunting novel about a father and son in the waning days of colonial Mozambique by the winner of the 2025 PEN/Nabokov Award Diogo Santiago is a celebrated Mozambican poet and intellectual, a well-known professor at the university in his country's capital. In 2019, on the eve of a cyclone that will devastate the East African coast, he returns to his hometown of Beira to receive a tribute from his fellow citizens. As he travels across Mozambique, his mind returns to the past--to his own upbringing, and to the history of his country when it was still a Portuguese colony. Diogo's father, himself a poet and a journalist, observed a terrible massacre committed during the waning days of the Estado Novo and was persecuted by the PIDE, the Portuguese secret police. Diogo's reflections on his father's life are interspersed with found documents--letters, stories, entries in the journal kept by the PIDE agent who oversaw the case. As Cyclone Idai approaches Beira, threatening to wipe away the physical traces of the world in which he grew up, Diogo is forced to confront the impermanence of his own memories, too. A haunting novel of historical witness, The Cartographer of Absences is one of Mia Couto's finest works. Drawing on the author's own life in colonial Mozambique, this book is a significant new entry in the world literature canon.

Longlisted for the 2024 Dublin Literary AwardThe scintillating conclusion to the critically acclaimed historical saga: the Jan Michalski Prize-winning Sands of the Emperor trilogy. " Couto's] life has been woven into the history of the nation, and he has become the foremost chronicler of Mozambique's antiheroes: its women, its peasants, even its dead." --Jacob Judah, The New York Times In The Drinker of Horizons, the award-winning author Mia Couto brings the epic love story between a young Mozambican woman named Imani and the Portuguese sergeant Germano de Melo to its moving close. We resume where The Sword and the Spear concluded: While Germano is left behind in Africa, serving with the Portuguese military, Imani has been enlisted to act as the interpreter to the imprisoned emperor of Gaza, Ngungunyane, on the long voyage to Lisbon. For the emperor and his seven wives, it will be a journey of no return. Imani's own return will come only after a decade-long odyssey through the Portuguese empire at the beginning of the twentieth century. If history is always narrated by the victors, in The Drinker of Horizons, Couto performs an act of restorative justice, giving a voice to those silenced by the horrors of colonialism. Throughout, Couto's language astonishes, rendering with utter clarity the beauty and terror of war and love, and revealing the devastation of a profoundly unequal encounter between cultures.

Set against the backdrop of the war between the Kingdom of Gaza, one of the last great pre-colonial African kingdoms, and the Portuguese colonialists, a young African woman Imani and the Portuguese sergeant Germano de Melo have shared an unexpected love. While Germano is left behind in Africa, serving with the Portuguese military, Imani is enlisted to serve as interpreter to the imprisoned emperor of Gaza, Ngungunyane, on the long voyage to Lisbon. For Ngungunyane and his seven wives, it will be a journey of no return. Whereas Imani will come back only after a decade-long odyssey through the Portuguese empire at the turn of the nineteenth century. In the third novel of his acclaimed Sands of the Emperor trilogy, Couto supplies a voice to those silenced by the horrors of colonialism. As he depicts the beauty and terror of war and love, and reveals the devastation of a profoundly unequal clash of cultures, he gives a uniquely personal voice to a little-known period of history.

Longlisted for the 2024 Dublin Literary AwardThe scintillating conclusion to the critically acclaimed historical saga: the Jan Michalski Prize-winning Sands of the Emperor trilogy. " Couto's] life has been woven into the history of the nation, and he has become the foremost chronicler of Mozambique's antiheroes: its women, its peasants, even its dead." --Jacob Judah, The New York Times In The Drinker of Horizons, the award-winning author Mia Couto brings the epic love story between a young Mozambican woman named Imani and the Portuguese sergeant Germano de Melo to its moving close. We resume where The Sword and the Spear concluded: While Germano is left behind in Africa, serving with the Portuguese military, Imani has been enlisted to act as the interpreter to the imprisoned emperor of Gaza, Ngungunyane, on the long voyage to Lisbon. For the emperor and his seven wives, it will be a journey of no return. Imani's own return will come only after a decade-long odyssey through the Portuguese empire at the beginning of the twentieth century. If history is always narrated by the victors, in The Drinker of Horizons, Couto performs an act of restorative justice, giving a voice to those silenced by the horrors of colonialism. Throughout, Couto's language astonishes, rendering with utter clarity the beauty and terror of war and love, and revealing the devastation of a profoundly unequal encounter between cultures.

Mia Couto skriver på baggrund af virkelige hændelser en mystisk og fangende historie om traditioner og brutalitet. Der er ikke længere langt mellem levende og døde, og vi ser, hvordan alle levende organismer kan give og tage fra hinanden. Kulumani er en isoleret landsby i Mozambique, hvis tro og traditioner er i fare, efter at nogle løver er begyndt at jage i området og har angrebet og dræbt flere af byens kvinder. Mariamar, søster til løvernes seneste offer, ser sit liv vakle, da Arcanjo Baleiro, som er hyret af landsbyens ældste til at dræbe løverne, ankommer til byen. Langsomt kommer Kulumanis brutale traditioner og handlinger op til overfladen. Mariamar bliver låst inde i huset af sin far og genoplever smertefulde minder om tidligere misbrug, og hun beder derfor Arcanjo om at tage hende med væk fra byen. Arcanjo Balerio mærker, hvordan mændene i Kulmani ser sig mere og mere truet af hans tilstedeværelse og den modernitet, der følger med ham som fremmed inde fra byen. De mener, at moderniteten udfordrer landsbyens kultur, og mistænker løverne for at være ånder, som er skabt af deres egne kvinders hekseri. ”Skønlitteraturen bringer os tættere på sandheden, end kolde fakta nogensinde har kunnet.” The Guardian ”Bogens jordlige visdom og glitrende magi giver dig lyst til at gå meget mere på opdagelse i Mia Coutos værker.” Vanity Fair

TRE UTSÖKTA NOVELLER AV TVÅ AV DEN PORTUGISISKSPRÅKIGA SKÖNLITTERATURENS STORA NAMNJosé Eduardo Agualusa föddes i Huambo i Angola 1960. Han studerade jordbruk och skogsbruk i sin hemstad, men valde sedan att inrikta sig på en bana som romanförfattare, historieberättare, krönikör och barnboksförfattare. J. E. Agualusa har fått många utmärkelser både på internationell,regional och nationell nivå. En stor del av hans verk finns översatta till andra språk bland dem svenska. Mia Couto föddes i Beira i Mocambique 1955 och är utbildad i biologi. Vid sidan av sitt omfattande författarskap är han verksam som biolog och som krönikör i lokala och internationella medier. Hans verk finns översatta till många språk bla svenska och har belönats ett stort antal gånger bla med det prestigefyllda Prémio Camões 2013 och Neustadt 2014.

The second novel in the exhilarating Sands of the Emperor trilogy, following the Man Booker International Prize finalist Woman of the Ashes Mozambique, 1895. After an attack on his quarters, the defeated Portuguese sergeant Germano de Melo needs to be taken to the hospital. The only one within reach is along the river Inhambane, so his lover Imani undertakes an arduous rescue mission, accompanied by her father and brother. Meanwhile, war rages between the Portuguese occupiers and Ngungunyane's warriors--battles waged with sword and spear, until the arrival of a devastating new weapon destined to secure European domination. Germano wants to start a new life with Imani, but the Portuguese military has other plans for the injured soldier. And Imani's father has his own plan for his daughter's future: as one of Ngungunyane's wives, she would be close enough to the tyrant to avenge the destruction of their village. With elegance and compassion, Mia Couto's The Sword and the Spear illustrates the futility of war and the porous boundaries between apparently foreign cultures--boundaries of which entire societies, but also friends and lovers, conceive as simultaneously insuperable and in decline.

An NPR Best Book of 2021 New and selected fiction, over half in English for the first time, from the winner of the 2014 Neustadt Prize. Known internationally for his novels, Neustadt Prize-winner Mia Couto first became famous for his short stories. Sea Loves Me includes sixty-four of his best, thirty-six of which appear in English for the first time. Covering the entire arc of Couto's career, this collection displays the Mozambican author's inventiveness, sensitivity, and social range with greater richness than any previous collection—from early stories that reflect the harshness of life under Portuguese colonialism; to magical tales of rural Africa; to contemporary fables of the fluidity of race and gender, environmental disaster, and the clash between the countryside and the city. The title novella, long acclaimed as one of Couto's best works but never before available in English, caps this collection with the lyrical story of a search for a lost father that leads unexpectedly to love.

Mia Couto föddes i Beira i Mocambique 1955 i en familj som utvandrat från Portugal. Han engagerade sig tidigt i befrielserörelsen och började efter Självständigheten 1975 att arbeta som journalist vid sidan av studier i biologi. Förutom i sitt omfattande författarskap har Mia Couto fortsatt att vara verksam som biolog och som krönikör både i lokala och internationella media.- Han har tilldelats flera framstående priser och utmärkelser. Bland dem fick han 2013 motta Prémio Camões, Portugals mest prestigefyllda litterära pris för portugisiskspråkig skönlitteratur.

A powerful evocation of love, loyalty and war in 19th-century Africa

Det här är berättelsen om Zeca - en ilandstigen fiskare och Luarmina - en oförlöst skönhet och deras sammanflätade liv i en liten by vid havet någonstans på Afrikas sydöstra kust. Zeca söker att genom dansen och den kroppsligt lustfyllda kärleken glömma plågsamma erfarenheter, upphöra att minnas dem och i korta stunder finna frid. Luarmina däremot har enligt henne själv, haft ett innehållslöst liv, som hon vill fylla med andras berättelser och avtvingar därför Zeca att dela med sig av sina traumatiska upplevelser. "Havet vill ha mig" är också en berättelse om Havet, allestädes närvarande - översvallande och generöst, men också grymt och krävande.

Southern Mozambique, 1894. Sergeant Germano de Melo is posted to the village of Nkokolani to oversee the Portuguese conquest of territory claimed by Ngungunyane, the last of the leaders of the state of Gaza, the second-largest empire led by an African. Ngungunyane has raised an army to resist colonial rule and with his warriors is slowly approaching the border village. Desperate for help, Germano enlists Imani, a fifteen-year-old girl, to act as his interpreter. She belongs to the VaChopi tribe, one of the few who dared side with the Portuguese. But while one of her brothers fights for the Crown of Portugal, the other has chosen the African emperor. Standing astride two kingdoms, Imani is drawn to Germano, just as he is drawn to her. But she knows that in a country haunted by violence, the only way out for a woman is to go unnoticed, as if made of shadows or ashes. Alternating between the voices of Imani and Germano, Mia Couto’s Woman of the Ashes combines vivid folkloric prose with extensive historical research to give a spell binding and unsettling account of war-torn Mozambique at the end of the nineteenth century.

After the war, I thought all that was left was ashes, hollow ruins . . . Today, I know that’s not true. Where man remains, a seed, too, survives, a dream to inseminate time. Published in the aftermath of Mozambique’s bloody civil war, Mia Couto’s third collection seeks out the places violence could not reach, the places where, the author writes, “every man is the same: pretending he’s here, dreaming of going away, and plotting his return.” Shifting masterfully between forms—creation tale to meditation, playful comedy to magical twist—these stories grapple with questions of what’s been lost and what can be reclaimed, what future exists for a country that broke the yoke of colonialism only to descend into internecine war, what is Mozambican and what is Mozambique. Following fishermen and fortune-tellers, widows and drunks, and one errant hippopotamus, this new translation of stories by the Man Booker-listed author of Confession of the Lioness rediscovers possibility and what it means to be reborn. style="text-align: left;">Finalist for the 2015 Man Booker International Prize style="text-align: left;">Winner of the Neustadt Prize for Literature, 2014 style="text-align: left;">Winner of the Camões Prize for Literature, 2013 A Vanity Fair Must-Read Book From Around The World for Winter 2019 A Financial Times Summer Book of 2019

At the turn of the nineteenth century, the Gaza province of Mozambique is drowning in a torrent of war. Imani, a fifteen-year-old girl, struggles with her cultural identity as she is torn between her VaChopi roots and the occupying Portuguese. Her life becomes further fractured as her family is broken apart amid the conflict. Germano, a sergeant wrestling with guilt and grandeur, attempts to subdue one of the last African kingdoms, but meanwhile falls in love with Imani and loses himself to an infectious madness. In this vivid and enchanting novel, Mia Couto masterfully interweaves history with folklore and has managed to create a work of rare originality and imagination.

Shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award 2017A finalist for the 2015 Man Booker International PrizeMy sister Silência was the most recent victim of the lions, which have been tormenting our village for some weeks now…When Mariamar Mpepe’s sister is killed by lions, her father imprisons her at home. With only the ghost of her sister for company, she dreams of escape, and of the hunter who abandoned her years before. I’m the last of the hunters. And this is my last hunt. Archangel Bullseye, born into a long line of marksmen, is summoned back to Kulumani. But as he tracks the lions in the surrounding wilderness, his suspicions grow – that the darkest threats lie not outside the village, but at its very heart. What was happening was what always happened: The lions were coming back…Set in a forgotten corner of East Africa haunted by superstition, tradition and the shades of civil war, this is a struggle that blurs the savagery of nature, and the savagery of man.

Ömsint skildring av människans oförmåga att hantera livet av Mia Couto, en av den afrikanska litteraturens stora mästare, nominerad till The Man Booker Prize 2015. Silvestre Vitalício flyr från storstaden med sina båda söner, en tjänare samt åsnan Jezibel till en gudsförgäten plats långt ut i ödemarken. De slår sig ner i en gammal jaktstation och där grundar Silvestre sitt rike som han ger namnet Jesusalem. Enligt Silvestre har resten av världen gått under och det finns inget annat än deras Jesusalem, de är de enda överlevande människorna. Men i själva verket bär Silvestre på en fruktansvärd hemlighet och har flytt för att komma undan sitt förflutna. En dag kommer överraskande en främling portugisiskan Marta till Jesusalem och i och med detta hotas ordningen i Silvestres lilla kungadöme. Samtidigt börjar omvärlden bryskt och obönhörligt att tränga sig på. Mia Couto skildrar med ömhet och förståelse en människas oförmåga att uthärda livet. Hur förtvivlan kan övergå i rasande galenskap. Jesusalem är en komplex och fängslande roman med en mycket originell och poetisk stil. Mia Couto är född 1955 i Beira, Mocambique. Han har skrivit ett ertal romaner och anses vara en av de främsta författarna från det portugisspråkiga Afrika. Fyra romaner är översatta till svenska varav den senaste, Sjöjungfruns andra fot, utkom 2009.

BY THE FINALIST FOR THE 2015 MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE THE WINNER OF THE 2014 NEUSTADT PRIZE AND THE WINNER OF THE 2013 CAMOES PRIZE "One of the greatest living writers in the Portuguese language."--Philip Graham, The Millions "Subtle and elegant."--The Wall Street Journal "At once deadpan and beguiling."--The Times Literary Supplement "To understand what makes Antonio 'Mia' Emilio Leite Couto special--even extraordinary--we have to loosen our grip on the binary that distinguishes between 'the West' and 'Africa.' Couto is 'white' without not being African, and as an 'African' writer he's one of the most important figures in a global Lusophone literature that stretches across three continents."--The New Inquiry What would Barack Obama's 2004 campaign have looked like if it unfolded in an African nation? What does it mean to be an African writer today? How do writers and poets from all continents teach us to cross the sertao, the savannah, the barren places where we're forced to walk within ourselves? Bringing together the best pieces from his previously untranslated nonfiction collections, alongside new material presented here for the first time in any language, Pensativities offers English readers a taste of Mia Couto as essayist, lecturer, and journalist--with essays on cosmopolitanism, poverty, culture gaps, conservation, and more.