Rain and Other Stories (eBook)

Description

After the war, I thought all that was left was ashes, hollow ruins . . . Today, I know thats not true. Where man remains, a seed, too, survives, a dream to inseminate time.Published in the aftermath of Mozambiques bloody civil war, Mia Coutos third collection seeks out the places violence could not reach, the places where, the author writes, every man is the same: pretending hes here, dreaming of going away, and plotting his return. Shifting masterfully between formscreation tale to meditation, playful comedy to magical twistthese stories grapple with questions of whats 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 ofConfession of the Lionessrediscovers possibility and what it means to be reborn.Finalist for the 2015 Man Booker International PrizeWinner of the Neustadt Prize for Literature, 2014Winner of the Cames Prize for Literature, 2013PRAISE FOR MIA COUTOMia Coutos stories of civilisation and barbarity are told through a language that is precise and profound; he weaves together the living tradition of legend, poetry and song.International Man Booker shortlist jury citationOn almost every page we sense Coutos delight in those places where language slips officialdoms asphyxiating grasp.The New York Times[Couto is] a brilliant aphorist. There are countless sentences that have the weight and wisdom of ancient proverbs.The Wall Street JournalEven in translation, his prose is suffused with striking images.The Washington PostCoutos narrative tone, at once deadpan and beguiling, and his virtuoso management of time place him alongside the best Latin American magic realists.Times Literary SupplementQuite unlike anything else I have read from Africa.Doris LessingMia Couto, long regarded as one of the leading writers in Mozambique, has now been recognized as one of the greatest living writers in the Portuguese language [He] cracks open a welcoming window onto a vast world of literary pleasures that has for too long remained under the radar in the English-speaking world.Philip Graham, The Millions