Eric M. B. Becker

"Published in the aftermath of Mozambique's bloody civil war, Mia Couto's third collection seeks out the places violence could not reach, the places where, the author writes, "every man is the same: pretending he's here, dreaming of going away, and plotting his return." Shifting masterfully between forms--creation tale to meditation, playful comedy to magical twist--these stories grapple with questions of what's been lost and what can be reclaimed,...