Additional information
by Mia Couto (Author), David Brookshaw (Translator)
"Revelatory . . . An aching, dreamlike immersion." --Carl Hoffman, The Washington Post
"An intensely powerful work about revolution, compromise, and long-buried secrets . . . A haunting, compelling book." --Tobias Carroll, Words Without Borders
An atmospheric novel about a father and son in the waning days of colonial Mozambique by the winner of the 2025 PEN/Nabokov Award
Author Biography
Mia Couto, born in Beira, Mozambique, in 1955, is one of the most prominent writers in Portuguese-speaking Africa. After studying medicine and biology in Maputo, he worked as a journalist and headed several Mozambican national newspapers and magazines. Couto has been awarded numerous literary prizes, including the 2014 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the Camões Prize (the most prestigious Portuguese-language award), the Prémio Vergílio Ferreira, the Prémio União Latina de Literaturas Românicas, the FIL Literary Prize in Romance Languages, and, most recently, the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. He lives in Maputo, where he works as a biologist.
David Brookshaw is a professor emeritus at the School of Modern Languages at the University of Bristol. He has translated numerous books by Mia Couto, including The Cartographer of Absences, The Drinker of Horizons, The Sword and the Spear, Woman of the Ashes, Confession of the Lioness, The Tuner of Silences, A River Called Time, and Sleepwalking Land.
