BOOKS FROM MOZAMBIQUEUm rio chamado tempo, uma casa chamada terra : romance
by Mia Couto
Tags:
Set in Brazil
Male author
Description:
The young man Mariano is returning to his homeland, the island of Luar-do-Chão, for his grandfather's funeral. After years away, he finds himself a stranger in his own home and among his own race. Slowly, he comes to find that he has not returned to the island just for the funeral, but also for his own rebirth, and that of his family. As he tries to retrace his family history, Mariano receives a series of anonymous letters that lead him to investigate the death of his grandfather, and a crime that involves the whole island. He realizes that every inhabitant of the island has something to reveal, and as he tries to revive the past, the spirits of the island begin to emerge. Luar-do-Chão lies in a state of abandon, decay, and misery. It's not just its materials that have been damaged--the time of the island is falling apart, that magical and oracular time of archaic African tradition. Mariano's task is to recreate a history not only of himself and his family, but of post-colonial Africa, and of the fate of mankind.
