Search results for ""Author José Eduardo Agualusa""

En Daniel Benchimol és un periodista angolès que somia les vides de persones desconegudes. L?artista plàstica Moira Fernandes plasma en pintura els seus propis somnis, el neurocientífic brasiler Hélio de Castro crea una màquina per filmar-los i en Hossi Kaley, hoteler i exguerriller que pateix amnèsia, hi té una relació encara més estranya i misteriosa. En Daniel Benchimol tractarà amb tots ells, mentre veu com neix a Angola, un país totalitari a la vora del collapse, el somni ideal de la llibertat.La societat dels somiadors involuntaris és una novella sobre l?Angola contemporània, però també sobre la imaginària i somiada, en un moment en què la ingerència del meravellós en el real és una necessitat vital. Una faula profètica que posa en qüestió la realitat històrica, un relat satíric convertit en un instrument de transformació que intenta superar l?esquerda entre pensament i acció.

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La vigília de la independència d?Angola, la Ludo, una noia portuguesa atemorida per l?agitació del carrer, construeix un mur de totxanes que l'aïlla del mon exterior durant vint-i-vuit anys. Sobreviu cultivant verdures i caçant coloms amb l'única companyia del Fantasma, un pastor alemany albí, i escriu la seva historia a les parets amb trossos de carbó. Mentre ella observa el mon exterior i sembla enfonsar-se en l?oblit, el país transita traumàticament de l?alliberament a la república socialista, la guerra civil, la pau i el capitalisme cobdiciós.Jose Eduardo Agualusa traca amb una escriptura sensual i imaginativa un relat enlluernador que reconstrueix la historia recent d?Angola. Una narració basada en un personatge real i commovedor que ens ensenya el poder paralitzant de la por i la importància de la redempció.

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A journalist - the autobiographical features are quite deliberate - is trying to find out what happened to Lidia, who disappeared in Luanda in 1992, a point in time when the civil war flared up again with unprecedented ferocity after rebel leader Jonas Savimbi and his UNITA movement refused to accept defeat in the country's first free and democratic elections. The story, a tangled mesh of facts and fiction, tells of the disappointment of the two protagonists, which represents the disappointment of a whole nation.

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'Ingenious, consistently taut and witty' TLS 'Humorous and quizzical, with a light touch on weighty themes, the narrative darts about with lizard-like colour and velocity' Independent'Strange, elliptical, charming' Guardian 'A poetic, beguiling meditation on truth and storytelling . . . from the dreamscapes of magical realism to a gripping political thriller and even a murder mystery' New InternationalistFélix Ventura trades in memories, a slippery character selling new pasts to people whose bright futures lack only a good lineage, and wiping clean the slate of their identity.In a narrative that darts between past and present Angola, a bookish albino man, a beautiful woman, a mysterious foreigner and a witty talking lizard come together to discover their real origins. For theirs is a world where the truth seems to shift from moment to moment and where history itself is up for grabs . . .WINNER OF THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE'A work of fierce originality' Independent'Without doubt one of the most important Portuguese-language writers of his generation' ANTÓNIO LOBO ANTUNES'Cross J. M. Coetzee with Gabriel García Márquez and you've got José Eduardo Agualusa' ALAN KAUFMANTranslated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

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Ginga was an unforgettable queen in Angola during the 17th century; determined warrior, lucid and cunning ruler; she rebuilt her kingdom several times, commanded armies, negotiated and battled the great powers and other African rulers. She had a fiery and voracious private life and until her final days she was the owner of her destiny. In this novel, Jose Eduardo Agualusa reclaims such an unknown and unforgettable character with the hand of a born priest in Pernambuco, narrating the history of Ginga. Going inside a hidden territory and captivated by a form of life that he never imagined, through his eyes we discover a sensual world, vital and raw, where despite the cruelty, the greed and relentless rules of power, hides the possibility for love and beauty.

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WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2017A finalist for the Man Booker International Prize 2016 The brilliant new novel from the winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.On the eve of Angolan independence, Ludo bricks herself into her apartment, where she will remain for the next thirty years. She lives off vegetables and pigeons, burns her furniture and books to stay alive and keeps herself busy by writing her story on the walls of her home. The outside world slowly seeps into Ludo’s life through snippets on the radio, voices from next door, glimpses of a man fleeing his pursuers and a note attached to a bird’s foot. Until one day she meets Sabalu, a young boy from the street who climbs up to her terrace.

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The Angolan revolution has concluded and with their arrival: Business politicians, smugglers, and torturers who are not exactly flawless have the present and the future at their service; however, that is not enough. They want a past, worthy of their position, a worthy family. Felix Ventura will go to their aid, specializing in fabricating ancestors, family relations, a cradle of honor. He is a man that does his job well. Until one of his clients takes the lies to be reality and goes out to find their imaginary parents. The true past comes to light, that of the wounds of history, the one that sooner or later imposes itself.

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For years Ludovica Fernandez Mano has been afraid to leave their home She lives indoors with her sister, but when her sister falls in love and marries, they move in with her new husband. One night the couple attends a party. The hours pass, the days pass and the couple hasn’t returned. Ludovica removes the door and raises a wall closing hesrelf in without thinking of what tomorrow will be like, only being accompanied by a dog. Beyond the walls there is a boiling world. In the three decades of isolating herself inside, Angola lives like heaven and hell: The illusion of liberation; the corrosive breakthrough of capitalism; the corruption; the greed, the vengeance. Inevitably, scraps of that world enter the house, altering and keeping her alive, preparing Ludovica for the final surprise.

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"The limitless possibilities of fiction are brilliantly utilised . . . Ingenious" Irish Times"Agualusa's funny and lively tale turns increasingly ominous ahead of an explosive conclusion" Guardian***A Financial Times Fiction in Translation Book of the Year 2023***Daniel lives with artist Moira on her native Island of Mozambique. They are awaiting the birth of their child, while also organising the island's first literary festival. But as soon as the first festival guests arrive, the coast is hit by a cyclone.The island is spared, but the bridge to the mainland is left impassable, and telephone and internet connections are severed. The islanders - and the writers who have come for the festival - are cut off from the outside world. Left to their own devices, the authors forge new bonds and make the best of a situation that gets stranger each day. Some believe they're in an intermediate realm, a kind of limbo, and some have no choice but to write, as the boundaries between reality and fiction, past and future, and life and death begin to blur.Where do we go when it's all over? Perhaps to a small island. This is a novel about the nature of life and of time, and the extraordinary power of imagination and the written word, capable of creating anything and regenerating everything.Translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

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