The Cartographer of Absences

"A novel about a father and son, both poets, set before and after the fall of the Portuguese Empire in Mozambique"-- Provided by publisher.

Mia Couto, born in Beira, Mozambique, in 1955, is one of the most prominent writers in Portuguese-speaking Africa. After studying medicine and biology in Maputo, he worked as a journalist and headed several Mozambican national newspapers and magazines. Couto has been awarded numerous literary prizes, including the 2014 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the Camões Prize (the most prestigious Portuguese-language award), the Prémio Vergílio Ferreira, the Prémio União Latina de Literaturas Românicas, the FIL Literary Award in Romance Languages, and, most recently, the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. He lives in Maputo, where he works as a biologist.
David Brookshaw is an emeritus professor at the School of Modern Languages at the University of Bristol. He has translated numerous books by Mia Couto, including The Cartographer of Absences, The Drinker of Horizons, The Sword and the Spear, Woman of the Ashes, Confession of the Lioness, The Tuner of Silences, A River Called Time, and Sleepwalking Land.