Feature in The New York Times

The New York Times has published an extensive feature on Angolan author José Eduardo Agualusa, on occasion of Archipelago Books’ launching of The Living and the Rest in the USA on 27th May, in the English translation of the author’s longtime translator Daniel Hahn.

Agualusa states that his novel is “inspired by the real-life charms of Mozambique Island”, a small island on the northern coast of Mozambique which he has made his home almost ten years ago by marrying a local filmmaker.

Kenyan author Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor is convinced that “Agualusa is one of the prophets of our African ‘marvelous’ complexity”, a complexitiy which Agualusa himself likes to describe as “African realism”. According to Anderson Tepper, reading The Living and the Rest “you have entered Agualusa’s world, where the boundaries between the real and imaginary are porous, and dreams become their own reality.” And indeed, dreams are essential in Agualusa’s life and work. “We must start dreaming again, in a collective way. That’s the only way to transform the world: to dream together”, he says.

You can find the whole article here:

> New York Times Feature