Cover of Sleepwalking Land

Sleepwalking Land

As the civil war rages in 1980s Mozambique, an old man and a young boy, refugees from the war, seek shelter in a burnt-out bus. Among the effects of a dead passenger, they come across a set of notebooks that tell of his life. As the boy reads the story to his elderly companion, this story and their own develop in tandem. Written in 1992, Mia Couto's first novel is a powerful indictment of the suffering war brings.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 256 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Sleepwalking Land? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Sleepwalking Land. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. A Complicated War: The Harrowing of Mozambique Shares Africa, Mozambique
  2. Neighbours: The Story of a Murder Shares Africa, Mozambique, fiction
  3. The Electronic Revolution Shares colecção mil folhas, fiction, literature
  4. Butterfly Burning Shares Africa, african literature, fiction

“People who read Sleepwalking Land tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Maps
  2. The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo
  3. Good Morning Comrades
  4. Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote

“If you want more of the same (magical realism about travel), start with these.”

  1. The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter
  2. At the Mercy of the River: An Exploration of the Last African Wilderness
  3. Ivory
  4. The Book of Chameleons

“If it was the Africa that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. We Killed Mangy-Dog and Other Stories
  2. Allah is Not Obliged
  3. Reading the Ceiling
  4. Weep Not, Child

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Storms of Fate
  2. The Virgin in the Ice
  3. The Wheel of Surya
  4. The Boy From Aleppo Who Painted the War