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). Originally written in Portuguese, 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 was both inspired by and transcendent of the legacy of Portuguese colonialism and the subsequent civil war.
Shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker International PrizeMy sister Silência was the most recent victim of the lions, which have been tormenting our village for some weeks now...When Mariamar Mpepe's sister is killed by lions, her father imprisons her at home. With only the ghost of her sister for company, she dreams of escape, and of the hunter who abandoned her years before.I'm the last of the hunters. And this is my last hunt.Archangel Bullseye, born into a long line of marksmen, is summoned back to Kulumani. But as he tracks the lions in the surrounding wilderness, his suspicions grow - that the darkest threats lie not outside the village, but at its very heart.What was happening was what always happened: The lions were coming back...Set in a forgotten corner of East Africa haunted by superstition, tradition and the shades of civil war, this is a struggle that blurs the savagery of nature, and the savagery of man.
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.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
