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Woman of the ashes /

Couto, Mia, 1955-

Woman of the ashes / Mia Couto ; translated from the Portuguese by David Brookshaw. - First American edition. - viii, 254 pages ; 22 cm - Sands of the Emperor ; 1 .

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.


In English, translated from the Portugese.

9780374292270 0374292272

2017038332


Mozambique--19th century--Fiction.


Historical fiction.

PQ9939.C68 / M8513 2018

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