Short description
A police inspector is investigating a strange murder, a case in which all the suspects are eager to claim responsibility for the act. Set in a former Portuguese fort which stored slaves and ivory, this title combines fable and allegory, dreams and myths.
Long description
A police inspector is investigating a strange murder, a case in which all the suspects are eager to claim responsibility for the act.Set in a former Portuguese fort which stored slaves and ivory, Under the Frangipani combines fable and allegory, dreams and myths with an earthy humour. The dead meet the living, language is invented, reality is constantly changing.In a story which is partly a thriller, partly an exploration of language itself, Mia Couto surprises and delights, and shows just why he is one of the most important African writers of today.
Review
'This is an original and fresh tale quite unlike anything else I have read from Africa. I enjoyed it very much' Doris Lessing 'Mia Couto is a white man with an African soul' Henning Mankell 'Couto is the most prominent of the younger generation of writers in Portuguese-speaking Africa. Couto passionately and sensitively describes everyday life in poverty-stricken Mozambique' Guardian 'To read Mia Couto is to encounter a peculiarily African sensibility, a writer of fluid, fragmentary narratives... a remarkable novel' New Statesman 'A powerful and trenchant evocation of life in a society traumatised by decades of war and poverty' New Internationalist