The Cartographer of Absences

In the rich latest from Couto (The Drinker of Horizons), a poet reckons with the colonial history of Mozambique. Diogo Santiago returns to the former Portuguese colony of his birth, which gained independence in 1975, to receive an award. He’s also there to unravel mysteries related to his talented and adulterous father, Antonio, also a poet and a Portuguese colonist who was accused of siding with anti-colonial rebels, and his missing cousin, Sandro, who deserted the colonial army during its massacre of native rebels. Diogo’s host, a cryptic Portuguese woman named Liana Campos, gradually reveals how her family’s history is entwined with his own. These pieces of the past are laid down through letters, official documents, journal entries, and recordings turned over by Liana, and they illuminate the horrors of a racist colonial regime in its death throes after a decade-long struggle for independence. Key to it all is the role played by Liana’s grandfather, who served as an enforcer for the colonial state. Revelations of murder and suicide shade the final act, which is made all the more gripping by a cyclone bearing down on the country. This packs a punch. (Sept.)