Sleepwalking Land
Mozambique

Sleepwalking Land

by Mia Couto

War & Conflict Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Fantasy 2006

Summary

In war-torn Mozambique, an elderly man named Tuahir and a young boy, Muidinga, wander through a devastated landscape, searching for safety amid the violence of the civil war. They eventually take shelter in a burnt-out bus, where they discover the notebooks of a dead man named Kindzu. As Muidinga begins reading the notebooks aloud, another story unfolds: Kindzu's journey through a country torn apart by conflict, his search for a group of legendary warriors, and his longing for a world beyond violence.

The two narratives gradually become intertwined, blurring the boundaries between memory, dreams, folklore, and reality. As the characters travel through a landscape haunted by displacement and destruction, storytelling becomes a way to preserve hope and imagine a future beyond war. Blending magical realism, African oral traditions, and historical experience, Sleepwalking Land is a poetic exploration of survival, identity, and the search for belonging amid the devastation of civil conflict.

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Country
Mozambique
Africa
About the author
Mia Couto
Mia Couto

Mia Couto is a Mozambican novelist, poet, and biologist, born António Emílio Leite Couto in 1955 in the coastal city of Beira, Mozambique. He began studying medicine before turning to journalism during Mozambique's struggle for independence. After independence, he worked as a journalist and later trained as a biologist and environmental consultant. Couto is celebrated for his distinctive literary style, which blends Portuguese with Mozambican expressions, oral storytelling, folklore, and elements of magical realism. His novels and short stories frequently explore colonial history, cultural identity, memory, nature, and the consequences of war. His best-known works include Sleepwalking Land (1992), The Last Flight of the Flamingo (2000), and The Confession of the Lioness (2012). He received the Camões Prize in 2013, the most prestigious literary award for Portuguese-language writing, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2014. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages, establishing him as one of the most internationally recognised writers from Africa.

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Details
Published
2006
Author
Mia Couto