The Blind Fisherman is a compilation of Mia Couto’s early short stories—as first presented to the English-speaking world in his two collections: Voices Made Night (1990) and Every Man is a Race (1994). It was in these collections that Mia Couto first announced himself as a writer of international importance, constructing stories that blended the unique history of Mozambique with a magic realism that both transcended and was inspired by the legacy of Portuguese colonialism and the subsequent civil war.

The Blind Fisherman (Penguin African Writers)

Literature & Fiction

Couto, Mia

Literary

Penguin Global

A dark, poetic mystery about the tribal women of Kulumani and the lionesses that hunt them Told through two haunting interwoven diaries, Mia Couto's Confession of the Lioness reveals the enigmatic world of Kulumani, an isolated village in Mozambique whose traditions and beliefs are threatened when ghostlike lionesses begin hunting and killing the women who live there.
Mariamar, a young woman from the village, finds her life thrown into chaos just as the marksman hired to kill the lionesses, the outsider Archangel Bullseye, arrives in town. Mariamar's sister was recently killed in one of the attacks, and her father has imprisoned her in his home, where she relives painful memories of past abuse and hopes to be rescued by Archangel. Meanwhile, Archangel attempts to track the lionesses out in the wilderness, but when he begins to suspect there is more to these predators than meets the eye, he slowly starts to lose control of his hands. The hunt grows more and more dangerous, until it's no safer inside Kulumani than outside it. As the men of Kulumani feel increasingly threatened by the outsider, the forces of modernity upon their culture, and the animal predators closing in, it becomes clear that the lionesses might not be real lionesses at all, but rather spirits conjured by the ancient witchcraft of the women themselves.
Both a riveting mystery and a poignant examination of women's oppression, Confession of the Lioness combines reality, superstition, and magic realism in an atmospheric, gripping novel.

Confession of the Lioness: A Novel

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

The second novel in the exhilarating Sands of the Emperor trilogy, following the Man Booker International Prize finalistWoman of the Ashes Mozambique, 1895. After an attack on his quarters, the defeated Portuguese sergeant Germano de Melo needs to be taken to the hospital. The only one within reach is along the river Inhambane, so his lover Imani undertakes an arduous rescue mission, accompanied by her father and brother. Meanwhile, war rages between the Portuguese occupiers and Ngungunyane's warriors--battles waged with sword and spear, until the arrival of a devastating new weapon destined to secure European domination. Germano wants to start a new life with Imani, but the Portuguese military has other plans for the injured soldier. And Imani's father has his own plan for his daughter's future: as one of Ngungunyane's wives, she would be close enough to the tyrant to avenge the destruction of their village. With elegance and compassion, Mia Couto'sThe Sword and the Spear illustrates the futility of war and the porous boundaries between apparently foreign cultures--boundaries of which entire societies, but also friends and lovers, conceive as simultaneously insuperable and in decline.

The Sword and the Spear: A Novel (Sands of the Emperor, 2)

The first in a trilogy about the last emperor of southern Mozambique by one of Africa’s most important writers
Southern Mozambique, 1894. Sergeant Germano de Melo is posted to the village of Nkokolani to oversee the Portuguese conquest of territory claimed by Ngungunyane, the last of the leaders of the state of Gaza, the second-largest empire led by an African. Ngungunyane has raised an army to resist colonial rule and with his warriors is slowly approaching the border village. Desperate for help, Germano enlists Imani, a fifteen-year-old girl, to act as his interpreter. She belongs to the VaChopi tribe, one of the few who dared side with the Portuguese. But while one of her brothers fights for the Crown of Portugal, the other has chosen the African emperor. Standing astride two kingdoms, Imani is drawn to Germano, just as he is drawn to her. But she knows that in a country haunted by violence, the only way out for a woman is to go unnoticed, as if made of shadows or ashes. 
Alternating between the voices of Imani and Germano, Mia Couto’s Woman of the Ashes combines vivid folkloric prose with extensive historical research to give a spellbinding and unsettling account of war-torn Mozambique at the end of the nineteenth century.

Woman of the Ashes: A Novel (Sands of the Emperor, 1)

Longlisted for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award\nThe scintillating conclusion to the critically acclaimed historical saga: the Jan Michalski Prize–winning Sands of the Emperor trilogy.\n“[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 Times\nIn 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.\nIf 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.

The Drinker of Horizons: A Novel (Sands of the Emperor, 3)

The characters in these short stories - including the snake catcher who surrounds his lady's house with snakes and the man who scalds his wife with boiling water for fear that she is a witch - are all caught up in a landscape defined only by its contradictions.

Voices Made Night (African Writers Series)

British & Irish

Heinemann

'A man's story is always badly told. That's because a person never stops being born. Nobody leads one sole life, we are all multiplied into different and ever-changeable men.' So it is with all the stories in this collection, which never make a definitive judgement on the individual life, but only suggest its possibilities. Set in Mozambique, the stories reflect the legacy of Portuguese colonialism and the tragedy of the subsequent civil war. Mia Couto's first collection, Voices Made Night, was described as 'lyrical', 'magical' and 'compassionate' by the reviewers, who were unanimous in identifying a significant new talent from the continent. This volume confirms that judgement.

Every Man Is a Race (African Writers Series)

Contemporary

Imagine Africa and its theme of "Revolution" is introduced by Georges Lory who opens the collection with his essay, "Poets to your quills, Africa is taking off". Through a collage of poems, essays, fiction, and visual art, Imagine Africa gives us a glimpse of a kaleidoscopic contemporary Africa.

Imagine Africa: Volume 2 (Pirogue)

Chiziane, Paulina

Mukasonga, Scholastique

Brookshaw, David

Nunn, Cedric

Genre Fiction

Archipelago

A dark, poetic mystery about the tribal women of Kulumani and the lionesses that hunt them
Told through two haunting interwoven diaries, Mia Couto's Confession of the Lioness reveals the enigmatic world of Kulumani, an isolated village in Mozambique whose traditions and beliefs are threatened when ghostlike lionesses begin hunting and killing the women who live there.
The young Mariamar, whose sister was recently killed in an attack, has been imprisoned by her father in his home. Meanwhile, a marksman, the outsider Archangel Bullseye, has arrived to track the deadly lionesses, but as he pursues them in the wilderness, the hunt proves deadlier than imagined. As the predators continue to close in, and the village confronts the forces of modernity, it becomes clear that the lionesses may not be animals at all, but the spirits conjured by the village women’s ancient witchcraft.
Both a riveting mystery and a poignant examination of women’s oppression, this darkly poetic novel combines reality, superstition, and magical realism to startling effect.

Picador

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Couto, Mia. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Couto, Mia

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Couto, Mia. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Blind Fisherman (Penguin African Writers)

Confession of the Lioness: A Novel

The Sword and the Spear: A Novel (Sands of the Emperor, 2)

Woman of the Ashes: A Novel (Sands of the Emperor, 1)

The Drinker of Horizons: A Novel (Sands of the Emperor, 3)

Voices Made Night (African Writers Series)

Every Man Is a Race (African Writers Series)

Imagine Africa: Volume 2 (Pirogue)

Confession of the Lioness: A Novel

Woman of the Ashes: A Novel (Sands of the Emperor, 1)