The Tuner of Silences: 9 (Biblioasis International Translation Series, 9) - Softcover

Couto, Mia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1926845951 ISBN 13: 9781926845951

Publisher: Biblioasis, 2013

Synopsis

A RADIO FRANCE-CULTURE/TELERAMA BEST WORK OF FICTION, 2011 Mwanito Vitalicio was eleven when he saw a woman for the first time, and the sight so surprised him he burst into tears. Mwanito's been living in a big-game park for eight years. The only people he knows are his father, his brother, an uncle, and a servant. He's been told that rest of the world is dead, that all roads are sad, that they wait for an apology from God. In the place his father calls Jezoosalem, Mwanito has been told that crying and praying are the same thing. Both, it seems, are forbidden. The eighth novel by the internationally bestselling Mia Couto, The Tuner of Silences is the story of Mwanito's struggle to reconstruct a family history that his father is unable to discuss. With the young woman's arrival in Jezoosalem, however, the silence of the past quickly breaks down, and both his father's story and the world are heard once more. The Tuner of Silences was heralded as one of the most important books to be published in France in 2011, and remains a shocking portrait of the intergenerational legacies of war.

About this title

Review

A RADIO FRANCE-CULTURE/TELERAMA BEST WORK OF FICTION, 2011
Praise for "The Tuner of Silences"
"David Brookshaw's lyrical translation of Mia Couto's Portuguese lull[s] us into a hypnotized semi-acceptance of [an] impossible universe ... Couto's narrative tone, at once deadpan and beguiling, and his virtuoso management of time, place him alongside the best Latin American magic realists."--Times Literary Supplement
"To understand what makes Antonio "Mia" Emilio Leite Couto special -- even extraordinary -- we have to loosen our grip on the binary that distinguishes between "the West" and "Africa." Couto is "white" without not being African, and as an "African" writer he's one of the most important figures in a global Lusophone literature that stretches across three continents. The Tuner of Silences is an instantly recognizable part of this oeuvre ... We begin with the magic, with fantasy, with the impossible, and we steadily discover, in the end, that it never really was, that it always was what we were trying to pretend it wasn't. There is no magic. There is only reality."--"The New Inquiry"
"Starkly poetic ... a novel of damaged souls in a damaged country, "The Tuner of Silences" is an eloquent tale of loss." --M.A. Orthofer, "The Complete Review"
"Couto's language is rich, fertile, and often full of riddles that turn reality, as we know it, on its head. His stories straddle African and European worlds, and his preoccupations range across issues of race and identity, national culture and legacies of the country's civil war ... translated into shimmering prose by David Brookshaw, "The Tuner of Silences" is a true tour-de-force of modern African writing ... Couto's literary cosmos is unforgettable." --Anderson Tepper, "Words Without Borders"
"A phenomenal book ... a paragon of contemporary African literature ... some of the most beautiful and moving prose being written today." --"The Coffin Factory"
"The biggest eventt

About the Author

Mia Couto is the author of 25 books. Translated into 20 languages, his novels have been bestsellers in Africa, Europe, and Latin America. David Brookshaw is a professor of Hispanic, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies at the University of Bristol (London), and the General Editor of the HiPLA Monograph Series. He is the translator of six books by Couto, including Sleepwalking Land and The Last Flight of the Flamingo.

About this edition

• Publisher: Biblioasis
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1926845951
• ISBN 13: 9781926845951
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224