Ingenious, consistently taut and witty' TLS
'Humorous and quizzical, with a light touch on weighty themes, the
narrative darts about with lizard-like colour and velocity'
Independent
'Strange, elliptical, charming' Guardian
'A poetic, beguiling meditation on truth and storytelling . . . from the
dreamscapes of magical realism to a gripping political thriller and even
a murder mystery' New Internationalist
Félix Ventura trades in memories, a slippery character selling new pasts
to people whose bright futures lack only a good lineage, and wiping
clean the slate of their identity.
In a narrative that darts between past and present Angola, a bookish
albino man, a beautiful woman, a mysterious foreigner and a witty
talking lizard come together to discover their real origins. For theirs
is a world where the truth seems to shift from moment to moment and
where history itself is up for grabs . . .
WINNER OF THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE
'A work of fierce originality' Independent
'Without doubt one of the most important Portuguese-language writers
of his generation' ANTÓNIO LOBO ANTUNES
'Cross J. M. Coetzee with Gabriel García Márquez and you've got José
Eduardo Agualusa' ALAN KAUFMAN
Translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn
