ImageNations

Mia Couto Miguel of St. Orberose  informed me of this. On Monday May 27, Mozambican writer Mia Couto - author of Voices Made Night and Every Man is a Race - was announced as the winner of the 2013 Cam õ es, one of the most prestigious international awards honoring the work of Portuguese language writers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The awarding jury included writers Jose Eduardo Agualusa and Joao Paulo Borges Coelho, journalist Jose Carlos Vasconcelos, professor Clara Crabbe Rocha, critic Alcir Pecora and Ambassador and member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters da Costa e Silva. The Cam õ es Prize was created in 1988, by Portugal and Brazil, to distinguish writers of the Portuguese language whose work has contributed to the enrichment of the literary and cultural heritage of the Portuguese language. ( Source )

Title: Every Man is a Race Author: Mia Couto Genre: Short Stories (Anthology) Translator: David Brookshaw Publisher: Heinemann (African Writers Series) Pages:118 Year of Publication: 1991 (Portuguese) 1994 (English) Country: Mozambique For the Africa Reading Challenge Asked what his race was, he replied 'My race is me, John the Birdman.' Invited to explain himself, he added: 'My race is me myself. A person is an individual humanity. Every man is a race, Officer.' (Extract from the bird seller's statement)   Every Man is a Race is the second collection of short stories by Mia Couto . It is this collection that established Couto as master storyteller. His stories are known for being magical and surreal. It's always difficult to directly interpret Couto's story. The symbolism is heavy. Consisting of 18 short stories, Every Man is a Race follows the path of Voices Made Night  in style, structure and theme. Couto has a way with...

It's been almost a month since I brought you this weekly feature. As you are, by now, aware, I have bee away for sometime. Today's quotes comes from a writer whose way with words is so unique that I believe I can correctly predict every line as his, when 'blindly' quoted. Mia Couto is known for his lyrical stories. He epitomises the originality of storytelling where the teller in his/her telling leaves room for the reader/listener to make his own meaning from the tell. A man's story is always badly told. That's because a person never stops being born. (Page 10 in  The private apocalypse of Uncle Gegue ) A poor man can't bribe his way to his fate. He invents expectations for himself, unreachable places and times. (Page 11 in The private apocalypse of Uncle Gegue ) It's the sea that causes islands to be round. (Page 16 in  The private apocalypse of Uncle Gegue ) Which is the best family? The unknown relatives of strangers. Only those...

Her five daily prayers were like punctuation marks that divided up and gave meaning to her life. Each prayer had for her a distinct quality, just as different foods had their own flavours. (Page 3, Distant View of a Minaret,  in Distant View of a Minaret  by Alifa Rifaat) All fifty years, I felt, were shown in the footprints they had left round my eyes, which were still my best feature, and in the slackness round my chin (Page 17, Thursday Lunch, in Distant View of a Minaret by Alifa Rifaat) Life is a web weaving a spider (Page 95, The Ex-Future Priest and His Would-be Widow, in Voices Made Night  by Mia Couto) Happiness stepped out of her and forgot to return (Page 83, Patanhoca the Lovesick Snake Catcher, in Voices Made Night by Mia Couto) I am a blind man who sees many doors (Page 48, So You Haven't Flown Yet,, Carlota Gentina, in Voices Made Night  by Mia Couto) The power of a minion is to make others feel even smaller, to tread on others j...

Title: Voices Made Night Author: Mia Couto Translator: David Brookshaw Genre: Short Story Collection (Anthology) Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series) Pages: 115 Year of First Publication: 1986 (in Portuguese); 1990 (in English) Country: Mozambique My first encounter with Mia Couto was his story  The Birds of God  in Contemporary African Short Stories . Having not been disappointed by this contribution, which again is present in this collection, I set forth to read his first collection of short stories,  Voices Made Night . This collection of fourteen short stories was the last book I read in 2010 and the first book I review 2011. It also marks the beginning of the Africa Reading Challenge . From the magical realism of  The Birds of God , to the political realities of  The Barber's Most Famous Customer, The Whales of Quissico  and  The Tale of the two who Returned from the Dead,  Mia Couto has put together an e...