David Brookshaw

David Brookshaw is an emeritus professor at the University of Bristol, UK. He has published widely in the field of Brazilian and lusophone postcolonial studies. His translations include, most recently, Mia Couto’s Confession of the Lioness and Pensativities and Other Interinventions: Selected Essays, both forthcoming in spring 2015. His translation of Couto’s “In Some Other Life I Was a Bird” appears on page 53.

The Joyful Song of the Partridge by Paulina Chiziane
By Paulina Chiziane

Paulina Chiziane
New York. Archipelago Books. 2024. 485 pages. Sixty-eight-year-old Paulina Chiziane doesn’t write for your approval but rather to protect the sanctity of her people’s memories. She do…
The Drinker of Horizons by Mia Couto
By Mia Couto

Mia Couto
New York. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2023. 256 pages. Mozambican writer Mia Couto concludes his Sands of the Emperor trilogy with The Drinker of Horizons, again translated from Portug…
Sea Loves Me: Selected Stories by Mia Couto
By Mia Couto

Mia Couto
Windsor, Canada. Biblioasis. 2021. 399 pages. “SEA LOVES ME,” the title story of Mia Couto’s latest collection, brims with secrets, seduction, and the wisdom of ancestors. Zeca Perpét…
The Sword and the Spear by Mia Couto
By Mia Couto

Mia Couto
New York. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2020. 288 pages. MASTER STORYTELLER MIA COUTO frames an inspired tale with actual events in The Sword and the Spear. The novel illustrate…
Woman of the Ashes by Mia Couto
By Mia Couto

Mia Couto
New York. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2018. 272 pages. The first entry in a planned trilogy, Mia Couto’s Woman of the Ashes is a beautiful and grotesque force interweaving history with myth. A…
The First Wife: A Tale of Polygamy by Paulina Chiziane
By Paulina Chiziane

Paulina Chiziane
New York. Archipelago Books. 2016. 494 pages. In The First Wife, Paulina Chiziane, the first Mozambican woman to publish a novel, writes from the perspective of Rami, who is Tony’s only wife—…
Confession of the Lioness by Mia Couto
By Mia Couto

Mia Couto
David Brookshaw, tr. New York. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2015. ISBN 9780374129231. Nominated for the Man Booker International Prize, Mia Couto’s Confession of the Lioness tackles large iss…
Re-enchanting the World: The 2014 Neustadt Prize Acceptance Speech
By Mia Couto
January 2015
Mia Couto
One of the most prominent writers in Portuguese-speaking Africa, Mia Couto was born in 1955 in Beira, Mozambique. Couto studied medicine and biology in Maputo and began his literary career du…