Confession of the Lioness

Mia Couto author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Vintage Publishing

Published:12th Jul '18

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Confession of the Lioness cover

Shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award 2017
A finalist for the 2015 Man Booker International Prize

My sister Silência was the most recent victim of the lions, which have been tormenting our village for some weeks now…

When Mariamar Mpepe’s sister is killed by lions, her father imprisons her at home. With only the ghost of her sister for company, she dreams of escape, and of the hunter who abandoned her years before.

I’m the last of the hunters. And this is my last hunt.

Archangel Bullseye, born into a long line of marksmen, is summoned back to Kulumani. But as he tracks the lions in the surrounding wilderness, his suspicions grow – that the darkest threats lie not outside the village, but at its very heart.

What was happening was what always happened: The lions were coming back…

Set in a forgotten corner of East Africa haunted by superstition, tradition and the shades of civil war, this is a struggle that blurs the savagery of nature, and the savagery of man.

Somber and masterfully wrought... Sings with the musical nuance of a poem * LA Times *
Written in prose both aphoristic and lush, which suggests rural speech yet creates a far richer texture, Confession of the Lioness opens as an exploration of a crisis that has multiple roots yet reaches a denouement that blames Kulumani’s problems on a single malaise -- Stephen Henighan * The Times Literary Supplement *
A passionate denunciation of patriarchy and violence against women in an east African village... A radical call for change framed in a semitraditional form; a book of profound disenchantment written in language that seeks to re-enchant the world -- Hedley Twidle * Financial Times *
Replete with some of the most stunning metaphors I've ever encountered... Confessions of the Lioness left me shaken, but also utterly entranced * Buzzfeed *
This remarkable novel impresses on many levels... A beautifully crafted tale about sound and fury, the living and the dead * Economist *

  • Short-listed for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2017 (UK)

ISBN: 9781787301313

Dimensions: 216mm x 135mm x 15mm

Weight: 225g

208 pages