Under the Frangipani

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.

Mia Couto was born in Mozambique in 1955. When his country became independent in 1975, Couto interrupted his studies to become a journalist and newspaper editor. Later, he resumed his studies, and is now an enviornmental biologist. He has published poetry, short stories and a number of novels. His work has been widely recognised in the Portuguese-speaking world, and has been translated into a number of European languages. He lives in Maputo, Mozambique.

This is an original and fresh tale quite unlike anything else I have read from Africa. I enjoyed it very much. -- Doris Lessing A powerful and trenchant evocation of life in a society traumatised by decades of war and poverty. * New Internationalist * To read Mia Couto is to encounter a peculiarily African sensibility, a writer of fluid, fragmentary narratives...a remarkable novel. * New Statesman * Mia Couto is a white man with an African soul. * Henning Mankell *