Customer Reviews

Sleepwalking Land

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If this is one of the best African books I shutter to think what the rest are like. Obviously war is hell and nothing is more hellish than an African war of tribes killing tribes and Africans stealing, raping and doing whatever bad things they want to do to each other with no culture, religious beliefs or police to stop them. So life has been hellish for the main characters of this book (a child and an old man) and probably that is why the author feels free to make up a story of ghosts and goblins and things that go bump in the night. Its not science fiction exactly but close to it.

I had initially started to read the book Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell as it was suggested to me on the Go Review That Book! Group on Librarything.com. However just as I was starting to read it a few books that I had put on hold at the library came in so I put that book aside and began to read Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto.

I first heard about this book on Librarything and was intrigued by what people said about it. This book takes place entirely in a burnt out bus somewhere in Mozambique during the civil war that occurred there during the 1980's. The main story takes place between Muidinga a young boy and the older man, Tuahir, who takes it upon himself to care for him. Tuahir is a gruff character who cares deeply for Muidinga but doesn't like to show it openly. Instead he shows him with small actions rather than words the love that he feels. After leaving a refugee camp Tuahir and Muidinga wander Mozambique and eventually take refuge in a burnt out bus. While in the bus they find among the remain belongs a series of diaries and bond between the two grows as they lose themselves in the story that the diaries contain.

Sleepwalking Land is a powerful novel with a dream-like feel to it. In the hands of a less talented author this story would probably have been very disjointed. Couto manages to weave the two stories together in an almost seamless way. The characters are lovable as well as memorable as is the story that they tell. Sleepwalking Land is a short novel but its one whose message of the power of love and hope is one that stays will you long after the book is down. Couto has a beautiful way of speaking and I look forward to reading other novels by him.

[...]