Sea Loves Me
Selected Stories
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
An NPR Best Book of 2021
New and selected fiction, over half in English for the first time, from the winner of the 2014 Neustadt Prize.
Known internationally for his novels, Neustadt Prize-winner Mia Couto first became famous for his short stories. Sea Loves Me includes sixty-four of his best, thirty-six of which appear in English for the first time. Covering the entire arc of Couto's career, this collection displays the Mozambican author's inventiveness, sensitivity, and social range with greater richness than any previous collection—from early stories that reflect the harshness of life under Portuguese colonialism; to magical tales of rural Africa; to contemporary fables of the fluidity of race and gender, environmental disaster, and the clash between the countryside and the city. The title novella, long acclaimed as one of Couto's best works but never before available in English, caps this collection with the lyrical story of a search for a lost father that leads unexpectedly to love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mozambican writer Couto (Woman of the Ashes) draws on African proverbs for a captivating collection of 64 brief, aphoristic stories, set mostly in Mozambique. In "The Fire," an old man decides to dig a grave for his devoted, healthy wife, while he still has the strength. When the grave is ready, he declares he must kill her so the grave will not lie empty. She agrees ("You worked so hard to dig that hole. It is a pity that it should remain empty"), but by now he's too weak to do it. In "The Day Mabata-Bata Exploded," young orphan Azarias dreams of going to school. However, his uncle needs him to look after his cattle. When a prized ox mysteriously explodes, bursting "without so much as a moo," Azarias decides to run away rather than face his uncle's wrath. There are captivating stories of people at the margins like the title character in "Rose Caramela," a "hunchback cripple" who ends up in an unexpected romance, and the Black bird seller in "The Bird Dreaming Baobab," who angers the residents of a white neighborhood by passing through with his cages. Many entries elude easy interpretation, making them all the more haunting. Each story contains enchanting insights into human nature.
