Woman of the Ashes
A Novel
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The first in a trilogy about the last emperor of southern Mozambique by one of Africa’s most important writers
Southern Mozambique, 1894. Sergeant Germano de Melo is posted to the village of Nkokolani to oversee the Portuguese conquest of territory claimed by Ngungunyane, the last of the leaders of the state of Gaza, the second-largest empire led by an African. Ngungunyane has raised an army to resist colonial rule and with his warriors is slowly approaching the border village. Desperate for help, Germano enlists Imani, a fifteen-year-old girl, to act as his interpreter. She belongs to the VaChopi tribe, one of the few who dared side with the Portuguese. But while one of her brothers fights for the Crown of Portugal, the other has chosen the African emperor. Standing astride two kingdoms, Imani is drawn to Germano, just as he is drawn to her. But she knows that in a country haunted by violence, the only way out for a woman is to go unnoticed, as if made of shadows or ashes.
Alternating between the voices of Imani and Germano, Mia Couto’s Woman of the Ashes combines vivid folkloric prose with extensive historical research to give a spellbinding and unsettling account of war-torn Mozambique at the end of the nineteenth century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Couto's excellent novel, the first in a trilogy, chronicles the territorial power struggles of 1890s southern Mozambique, alternating between the voices of Imani, a 15-year-old living in the village of Nkokolani, and Portuguese sergeant Germano de Melo, who is sent to the village to protect Portugal's conquest from falling under the control of Ngungunyane, the leader of Gaza. Unfamiliar with his surroundings and the local language, de Melo whose exile to Africa is punishment for an attempted military revolt hires Imani and her brother, Mwanatu, to work as his translator and guard, respectively. De Melo earns the trust of some villagers by promising to protect them from Ngungunyane's forces, yet his garrison contains shoddy weaponry and the Portuguese army is nowhere to be found. As the weeks pass and de Melo's sanity begins to waver, Imani deals with an unstable home life, her new employer's sexual advances, and the possibility of seeing her village destroyed. Couto (Confession of the Lioness) feathers history with folklore; while readers with some knowledge of Mozambican history will get the most out of the novel, this is still a fascinating, intricate story.
