Woman of the Ashes

by Mia Couto Narrated by Joel Richards, Bahni Turpin

Overview

The first in a trilogy about the last emperor of southern Mozambique by one of Africa's most important writers.



Southern Mozambique, 1894. Sergeant Germano de Melo is posted to the village of Nkokolani to oversee the Portuguese conquest of territory claimed by Ngungunyane, the last of the leaders of the state of Gaza, the second-largest empire led by an African. Ngungunyane has raised an army to resist colonial rule and with his warriors is slowly approaching the border village. Desperate for help, Germano enlists Imani, a fifteen-year-old girl, to act as his interpreter. She belongs to the VaChopi tribe, one of the few who dared side with the Portuguese. But while one of her brothers fights for the Crown of Portugal, the other has chosen the African emperor. Standing astride two kingdoms, Imani is drawn to Germano, just as he is drawn to her. But she knows that in a country haunted by violence, the only way out for a woman is to go unnoticed, as if made of shadows or ashes.



Alternating between the voices of Imani and Germano, Mia Couto's Woman of the Ashes combines vivid folkloric prose with extensive historical research to give a spellbinding and unsettling account of war-torn Mozambique at the end of the nineteenth century.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Sheila Glaser

Set in the late 19th century and skillfully translated by David Brookshaw, this is the first novel of a trilogy about the last days of the "so-called State of Gaza." This vast African empire, led by the legendary warrior-chief Ngungunyane, once covered much of what is now Mozambique. To give birth to his embattled world, Couto…draws from a trove of historical documents, alternating between the perspective of a disgraced Portuguese sergeant…and that of a young VaChopi girl, Imani, who serves as his translator. From the myths that swirled around Ngungunyane (and still do), Couto conjures what he has described as the "many and small stories" out of which history is made, offering a profound meditation on war, the fragility of empire and the ways in which language shapes us…Couto, a "white man who is African," as he describes himself…tells the stories of those who write their names in "the dust and ashes," capturing through their landscape—and the language of those who have invaded it—an unwritten history.

Publishers Weekly

02/26/2018
Couto’s excellent novel, the first in a trilogy, chronicles the territorial power struggles of 1890s southern Mozambique, alternating between the voices of Imani, a 15-year-old living in the village of Nkokolani, and Portuguese sergeant Germano de Melo, who is sent to the village to protect Portugal’s conquest from falling under the control of Ngungunyane, the leader of Gaza. Unfamiliar with his surroundings and the local language, de Melo—whose exile to Africa is punishment for an attempted military revolt—hires Imani and her brother, Mwanatu, to work as his translator and guard, respectively. De Melo earns the trust of some villagers by promising to protect them from Ngungunyane’s forces, yet his garrison contains shoddy weaponry and the Portuguese army is nowhere to be found. As the weeks pass and de Melo’s sanity begins to waver, Imani deals with an unstable home life, her new employer’s sexual advances, and the possibility of seeing her village destroyed. Couto (Confession of the Lioness) feathers history with folklore; while readers with some knowledge of Mozambican history will get the most out of the novel, this is still a fascinating, intricate story. (Apr.)

From the Publisher

"The pair of talented narrators work together to create the personas of Emperor Ngungunyane and teenage Imani." -AudioFile

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"The pair of talented narrators work together to create the personas of Emperor Ngungunyane and teenage Imani." -AudioFile

OCTOBER 2018 - AudioFile

Fans of world literature will fall headlong into this reimagining of the fight to keep southern Mozambique free of colonialism in the late nineteenth century. The pair of talented narrators work together to create the personas of Emperor Ngungunyane and teenage Imani. Bahni Turpin gives the teenager a steely voice that follows her through the tumult of the Portuguese invasion. Her chapters alternate with those performed by Joel Richards, who portrays Sergeant Germano de Melo. Listeners are treated to a rich historical tapestry most may know little about. Richards lends a slight accent to the Portuguese military man, which creates a nice contrast to the feminine Imani, who serves as his translator. The two are thrown together by fate, and their loyalties are tested—will they choose love or country? M.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2018-02-06
A 15-year-old girl becomes central to a violent culture clash in late-19th-century colonial Mozambique.Imani, the main narrator of the opening novel in a planned trilogy by Couto (Confession of the Lioness, 2015, etc.), lives in the coastal African nation, ostensibly a colony of Portugal but more practically ruled by the emperor Ngungunyane. Imani's family, part of a separate tribe opposing the emperor, lives in fear of his coming invasion, which drives the story's plot; the Portuguese colonists are no more admirable and struggle to govern but offer at least a measure of protection. Set in 1894-95 in the months before Ngungunyane's violent ouster, the narrative braids Imani's observations, recollections, and recitations of folktales with letters from Germano de Melo, the Portuguese sergeant in charge of the territory where Imani lives. Early on, the divide between the two is wide: Imani's narrative has magical realist touches (her mother can't feel pain, her father is protected by the names of ancestors he writes on the ground, and ghosts abound), while Germano is blunt and condescending about the "superstitions unique to these ignorant folk." But he bends in time, in part out of political expediency as well as attraction to Imani. "You've got to be for him what all women are in this world," Imani's father insists, but she's too headstrong and intelligent to submit so simply. In time, the novel shows the inherent flaws in colonialism, its built-in ignorance, fickle management, and use of privation as a tool to control local people. But Couto also writes on a more subtle level, with Imani's vivid dreams and memories exposing the nature and impact of power and revealing how Western practices are folkloric too: "Europeans write the names of those they had buried on a stone. It's their way of resuscitating them."A rich historical tale thick with allegory and imagery that recalls Marquez and Achebe.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170491636
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	09/25/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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