Woman of the Ashes

By: Mia Couto, David Brookshaw - Translator

Narrated by: Joel Richards, Bahni Turpin

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 15-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 19th century.

©2015 Editorial Caminho; translation copyright 2018 by David Brookshaw (P)2018 Tantor

Beautiful novel about Mozambique

An intimate glimpse into the history of Mozambique and the struggle for identity and purpose of a young girl.

An award Winning Novel of Southern Aftrica 1895

This book is the first of the Sands of the Emperor trilogy by Portuguese/Mozambique writer Mis Couto. It tells the story about a fifteen-year-old African girl in a small village during the time of tribal wars and the incursion of Portugal and Britain in Southern Africa in 1894-1895. Couto writes very well of the characters. He thoroughly researched the beliefs, feelings and superstitions of the Africans and the Portuguese army characters. Mr. Couto’s trilogy recently won the 2020 Jan Michalski Prize for Literature in Switzerland. Through no fault of Mr. Couto, the book often moves from fable to reality in the description of the characters and their thoughts. Taken with the remarkable history of Southern Mozambique in the late 19th Century make portions of the hard to follow. It is worth the effort.