Read by L. J. Ganser

The brilliant 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. As the country goes through various political upheavals from colony to socialist republic to civil war to peace and capitalism, 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 master storyteller…It's a tribute to Agualusa's storytelling that the bittersweet redemption found by his characters feels authentic; he and they have earned it." "Each page brimming with imagination." "José Eduardo Agualusa is a literary trickster who dazzles with his artificial fictional creations…Agualusa is a master of varied genre structure…but his heart is deeply invested in his characters, and each individual's story burns itself into the reader to make us reconsider our capacity for empathy and understanding." "In this tale, based on real-life events, one of Angola's most inventive novelists has found the perfect vehicle to examine his country's troubled recent past."

Mode of access: World Wide Web