Bøker av Mia Couto

Sebastiao Salgado's stark black-and-white images of Africa come together in this remarkable photographic collection, shot over a period of 30 years. These images tell the tale of a continent ravaged by troubles but immensely rich in history and culture. With humility and insight, Salgado draws us into multiple and diverse regions surviving in...

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.

The 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 TimesIn 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.

New and selected fiction, over half in English for the first time, from the winner of the 2014 Neustadt Prize.

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

Shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award 2017A finalist for the 2015 Man Booker International PrizeMy sister Silencia 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.

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.