Declare About Books Sleepwalking Land
| Title | : | Sleepwalking Land |
| Author | : | Mia Couto |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 256 pages |
| Published | : | February 21st 2006 by Serpent's Tail (first published 1992) |
| Categories | : | Cultural. Africa. Fiction. Eastern Africa. Mozambique. Magical Realism. Literature |
Mia Couto
Paperback | Pages: 256 pages Rating: 4.05 | 2752 Users | 205 Reviews
Relation Conducive To Books Sleepwalking Land
As the civil war rages in 1980s Mozambique, an old man and a young boy, refugees from the war, seek shelter in a burnt-out bus. Among the effects of a dead passenger, they come across a set of notebooks that tell of his life. As the boy reads the story to his elderly companion, this story and their own develop in tandem. Written in 1992, Mia Couto’s first novel is a powerful indictment of the suffering war brings.Details Books Toward Sleepwalking Land
| Original Title: | Terra Sonâmbula |
| ISBN: | 185242897X (ISBN13: 9781852428976) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Prémio Camões (2013) |
Rating About Books Sleepwalking Land
Ratings: 4.05 From 2752 Users | 205 ReviewsColumn About Books Sleepwalking Land
I was really impressed by this book. It is beautifully written and I have particularly liked the wordplay. Mia Couto combines words creating new ones so skillfully that you're caught wondering how come that word didn't exist before. It also made me wonder what the english translation is like and what a hard job it must have been to translate this book. I'm glad I was able to read the original, as not only the invented words, but also the choice of words is particularly important to define theThis book reminded me of the fantasy in 'One Hundred Years of Solitude', but without the depth in the storyline. There are so many unanswered questions within the story. As a reader I can go with that but in this book it relied on the reader's ability to discern the text as opposed to taking a reader there and allowing the story to unfurl in your mind. I consider this a book of loose ends.
I really wanted to enjoy this book. It starts well with prose that has a sense of magic in it absent from most contemporary fiction. You'll come upon lines like this: the sea opens like a blue word." But the plot corners itself when the main characters hole up in a bus. And the narrative present shrivels away into magical realism.But there are still great moments, and the book probably deserves three stars for dialogue like this alone. After the shop of an Indian is burned, the man says, I dont
Mia Coutos writing amazes me because even when reading his novels it feels like reading poetry. It is so reach, sensitive, figurative and beautiful that it just gets you think and mixing up reality with his story. I read it in Portuguese which probably makes the word mixes even richer. This is the first book I recall reading in where there are several stories in parallel, all crossing each other. Highly recommend it.
glad i got a book by a Mozambican author in, but that's kind of about it. it had some interesting things, but overall i think i missed a lot due to the fact i'm not Mozambican? not sure. there were some decidedly fucked up things in it including an old guy jerking a teen off and telling him to think about some girl in a story and the same team being raped by a gang of old ladies. no idea what those things were supposed to symbolize in this book.
Amazing book, it takes a while to get used to the rhytm of the story and to really get into the caracters' minds, if that is possible at all. The author is simply brillant is transforming war in literature. Many passages are based on local myths but the underlying story is very poignant. It show just how material things are so relative and how creative and inventive humans can be. I strongly recommend this one.
A novel against a background of war where a young boy and an adult who tries to flee it settle on a burnt bus where in a suitcase the youngest finds notebooks that he reads night after night to kill time and to dream of a better world.So these are two stories that intertwine, that of the reader and the listener, and that of the notebooks. Stories both woven from imagination, from invented words, legends and oral literature to disproportionate and eccentric characters who are sometimes more real
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