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“A General Theory of Oblivion” by Jose Eduardo Agualusa [Why This Book Should Win]

This entry in the Why This Book Should Win series is by George Carroll, former BTBA judge, sales rep, and international literature editor for Shelf Awareness. We will be running two (or more!) of these posts every business day leading up to the announcement of the finalists.   A General Theory of Oblivion by José ...

2009 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize longlist

The longlist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize has (finally!) been announced. Here you go: Voice Over by Céline Curiol (trans. Sam Richard) A Blessed Child by Linn Ullman (trans. Sarah Death) The Blue Fox by Sjon (trans. Victoria Cribb) Friendly Fire by A.B. Yehoshua (trans. Stuart Schoffman) My ...

Best Translated Book 2008 Longlist: The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa

This is it—the last overview of a book from the 25-title Best Translated Book of 2008 fiction longlist. The 10 finalists will be announced on Tuesday . . . Click here for all previous overviews. The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa, translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn. (Angola, Simon & ...

Daniel Hahn on Translating

Daniel Hahn’s new blog at Booktrust’s Translated Fiction site is a pretty interesting experiment: About to embark on translating a fourth Agulausa book, Estação das Chuvas, Daniel has kindly agreed to write a diary about the process from start to finish, which will appear exclusively on this ...

Daniel Whatley on Agualusa

Over at Conversational Reading, Daniel Whatley has a review of the latest translation of one of my favorites, Jose Eduardo Agualusa: The Book of Chameleons is not precisely like any novel you’ve likely read, though its antecedents and influences are numerous. Agualusa has mixed his elements with a light hand, ...

Jose Eduardo Agualusa Interview

Words Without Borders has an interview with one of my favorite authors, Jose Eduardo Agualusa, and a translation of one of his short stories, A Practical Guide to Levitation. In Brazil, your work is seen as critical of Angolan society. What’s the significance of this sociological approach in your work? I’m a ...

The Book of Chameleons

Félix Ventura, an albino, is an antique book dealer and a ‘seller of pasts,’ or genealogist as he tells strangers, who fabricates impressive genealogies for those Luandans who feel that their social station demands a more elevated (or more politically correct, given the bloody and recent revolutionary past ...