Jose Eduardo Agualusa's brilliant debut novel about the transformative power of creativity, winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
Jose E. Agualusa Books



SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL 2016 The brilliant new novel from the winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. On the eve of Angolan independence, Ludo bricks herself into her apartment, where she will remain for the next thirty years. She lives off vegetables and pigeons, burns her furniture and books to stay alive and keeps herself busy by writing her story on the walls of her home. The outside world slowly seeps into Ludo's life through snippets on the radio, voices from next door, glimpses of a man fleeing his pursuers and a note attached to a bird's foot. Until one day she meets Sabalu, a young boy from the street who climbs up to her terrace.
A dark literary comedy about an island literary festival that goes horribly - apocalyptically - wrong. By the winner of the Dublin Literary Award.