Harare Review of Books

253 pages.

Expected publication date: August 8, 2023 (Archipelago Books)

Fiction anthology.

I’ll read any fiction from one of my favourite authors, Angola-born, Mozambique-based writer José Eduardo Agualusa. He and his wonderful translator, Daniel Hahn, have a way with words, the fantastical and the surreal, bringing ghosts to life with dry humour, and immersing us in alternate cosmologies, showing us other ways the world might be. Agualusa’s treatment of Angola’s history is always slightly farcical, very humorous, and also quite sad, which seems appropriate to histories of liberation movements in Africa.

In the opening story in this collection of very short (?flash) fiction, Borges wakes up in heaven, or hell—an endless banana plantation, but he finds consolation in possibilities. In another story, a man offers to teach a party guest levitation. Levitation is also the theme in a later story about a potential Angolan political leader. Old liberation war heroes and famous authors are a frequent theme. A dog-charmer trains dogs to help him swindle people, and a bird-charmer first uses his skills in the war, against the enemy, and then later as a fortune-teller. A pensive despot shares his musings on how he got to where he is. In one story, a baobab offends the sensibilities of a modest public, and in another, a man goes around rescuing other baobabs—until he encounters a tree that’s swallowed something unexpected. A man with a Russian name travels around the Huambo highlands showing movies. K40 is the name of a crack shot who has retired to a farm. There are laughing lizards for sale at the side of a highway. Open To The Breeze is a beautiful and evocative story about a place that’s trapped in time. There’s a delightful story about butterflies and Queen Nzinga. Finally, in a thoughtful, although light, examination of Jonas Savimbi’s myth and legacy, we meet Savimbi’s daughter.

Agualusa’s boundless imagination and his particular brand of the surreal, as well as his distinctive style, are on full display in this wonderful collection. All of the stories are quite short, making this the perfect book to read whenever you want to take a break from the ordinary—real and boring life—to escape into the fantastical.

Highly recommended.

Thank you to Edelweiss and to Archipelago Books for this DRC.

---

You can support independent bookshops, and my writing, by pre-ordering/buying it on Bookshop here.