Felix Ventura is a man with an unusual occupation. If your lineage isn't sufficiently distinguished, he'll change that for you. If your family history isn't quite as glorious as you'd like, he can make you a new one. Felix Ventura is a seller of pasts.
From Angola, a country riddled with civil war and it' s aftereffects for the last 30 years, comes a surprising story of hope, passion, and magical realism from a groundbreaking, young African novelist. A young man arrives at the church of a small African village and starts whistling so beautifully that the priest is left in tears. As his weeklong stay continues, the whistler finds himself affected by the colorful inhabitants of the village as they all become bewitched and surrender to the moods of his melodies.
Esta novela traza un colorido retrato de los habitantes de la capital angolena, Luanda, y sus numerosas historias individuales. Odonato esta harto de ver tanto sufrimiento en derredor y se vuelve tan liviano que su mujer debe atarlo para impedir que escape flotando. En el edificio donde vive, el y sus vecinos se ayudan entre si, porque todos saben que cada uno lleva sus propias batallas a cuestas. Entre carteros celosos de su deber, vendedores que trafican con ilusiones, ministros que se topan por error con la miseria, inspectores que promueven negociones clandestinos, mujeres que multiplican ... continue
"A moving mural of lives in the underclass of Luanda." – The Guardian In a crumbling apartment block in the Angolan city of Luanda, families work, laugh, scheme, and get by. In the middle of it all is the melancholic Odonato, nostalgic for the country of his youth and searching for his lost son. As his hope drains away and the city outside his doors changes beyond all recognition, Odonato's flesh becomes transparent and his body increasingly weightless. Alongside, disparate stories are woven into the narrative, spanning from the tragic to the comic, from the surreal to the every-day, culminati... continue
Ondjaki, o escritor angolano já bem conhecido do público por obras como o assobiador (2002), quantas madrugadas tem a noite (2004), os da minha rua (2007), AvóDezanove e o segredo do soviético (2008), entre outros títulos, sempre colocou Angola, e em particular Luanda, de onde é natural, no centro da sua escrita. Com o presente romance, de novo aparece Luanda - a Luanda atual do pós- guerra, das especificidades do seu regime democrático, do «progresso», dos grandes negócios, do «desenrasca» - como pano de fundo de uma história que é um prodígio da imaginação e um retrato social de uma riqueza ... continue