Pensativities (Trade Paper)

Description

Finalist for the 2015 Man Booker International PrizeWinner of the 2014 Neustadt PrizeWinner of the 2013 Camoes PrizeWhat would Barack Obamas 2004 campaign have looked likeif 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 theserto, the savannah, the barren places where were 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,Pensativitiesoffers English readers a taste of Mia Couto as essayist, lecturer, and journalistwith essays on cosmopolitanism, poverty, culture gaps, conservation, and more.One of the greatest living writers in the Portuguese language.Philip Graham,The MillionsSubtle and elegant.The Wall Street JournalAt once deadpan and beguiling.The Times Literary SupplementRemarkable If his recent Neustadt Prize is any indication, [Couto] is a presumptive Nobel Prize-winning writer that we should be reading.National PostTo understand what makes Antnio Mia Emlio Leite Couto specialeven extraordinarywe 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 hes one of the most important figures in a global Lusophone literature that stretches across three continents.The New InquiryIf there is an overarching drive that threads the collection together, its Coutos commitment to recognize historys numerous flaws, and to use this history to embrace a diverse future, full of hybridities of both self and cultural environs A fine writer who deserves a wide North American audience [Couto] is aconstant witness to a countryflush with nouveau riche and mass povertytrying to figure out its place in both Africa and the world.Numro Cinq[Having] helped birth the global literary scenes love affair with African fiction, Couto is a polymath who not only sustains a lively scientific career but is also a former political activist once deeply involved in the fight for his countrys independence.OZY