Confession of the Lioness: A Novel

An Amazon Best Book of July 2015: Mia Couto, a prominent and award-winning African writer, has written a novel that shimmers like a diamond in the rough. Many years ago, a small village in Mozambique was hunted by lions. The lions killed dozens and eventually a hunter was hired to destroy the feline menace. Couto’s fable-like tale alternates between the stories of a young woman in the village and the hunter who is haunted by his past and his profession. As the days pass, the threat of the lion seems to go beyond the material world and like the people in the town you begin to wonder: are the lions real or are there darker forces afoot? Does the lion prowl to seek retribution for not honoring the dead or to condemn the men who brutally oppress women? Is the wild animal that different from the savagery of man? Translated from the Portuguese, Confession of the Lioness feels like a classic that’s been unearthed from a time long ago – it’s direct, beautifully woven and imbued with a sense of wisdom that feels, like the animal it chronicles, majestic. --Al Woodworth