Mia Couto is the author of 25 books. Translated into 20 languages, his novels have been bestsellers in Africa, Europe, and Latin America. David Brookshaw is a professor of Hispanic, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies at the University of Bristol (London), and the General Editor of the HiPLA Monograph Series. He is the translator of six books by Couto, including Sleepwalking Land and The Last Flight of the Flamingo.

BY THE FINALIST FOR THE 2015 MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE

THE WINNER OF THE 2014 NEUSTADT PRIZE

AND THE WINNER OF THE 2013 CAMÕES PRIZE

"One of the greatest living writers in the Portuguese language."?Philip Graham, The Millions

"Subtle and elegant."?The Wall Street Journal

"At once deadpan and beguiling."?The Times Literary Supplement

"To understand what makes António 'Mia' Emílio Leite Couto special?even extraordinary?we have to loosen our grip on the binary that distinguishes between 'the West' and 'Africa.' Couto is 'white' without not being African, and as an 'African' writer he's one of the most important figures in a global Lusophone literature that stretches across three continents."?The New Inquiry

Praise for Pensativities

"The essays of Pensativities ... confirm Couto?s status as a public intellectual."?The Guardian

"For [Mia Couto], the postcolonial project is not primarily political or economic; it is humanistic in nature, and literary in its means. Its aim is to reconcile history and myth, past and present, subjugator and subject. It brings together black and white, male and female, Africa and the West, young and old, the city and the bush... When reading Couto, it sometimes seems that it is not only the fate of Mozambique or even Africa that is at stake, but that of the whole world."?Ryu Spaeth, Music & Literature

"If there is an overarching drive that threads the collection together, it?s Couto?s commitment to recognize history?s numerous flaws, and to use this history to embrace a diverse future, full of 'hybridities' of both self and cultural environs ... A fine writer who deserves a wide North American audience ... [Couto] is a constant witness to a country?flush with nouveau riche and mass poverty?trying to figure out its place in both Africa and the world."?Numéro Cinq

"[Having] helped birth ... the global literary scene?s love affair with African fiction, Couto is a polymath who not only sustains a lively scientific career but is also a former political activist once deeply involved in the fight for his country?s independence."?OZY