José Eduardo Agualusa

[Heteronym]

The English wiki article is rather sparse in details.

José Eduardo Agualusa, was born in Huambo, Angola, on December 13, 1960, son of white Portuguese settlers. He studied Agronomy in Lisbon before turning to journalism and literature. He shares his time between Luanda and Lisbon. He has collaborated extensively with Portuguese media in bringing public awareness of African music and poetry. He writes articles and chronicles for several Portuguese newspapers and magazines.

A member of the Angolan Writers’ Union, Agualusa began his literary career in 1989 with the novel A Conjura. Besides novels, he has written short-stories, novellas, poetry, and children’s literature. He has also created a publishing house, Língua Geral, devoted exclusively to Portuguese-language writers.

Agualusa has only recently received international fame, after winning the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007 for The Book of Chameleons. In 2007 he also published My Father’s Wives. He has a third novel translated in English, Creole, a love story set in the 19th century Angola. Interestingly, the novel makes use of Fradique Mendes, a fictional cultured, eccentric traveler and poet invented by Eça de Queiroz.

Bibliography:

• A Conjura (novel, 1989)
• D. Nicolau Água-Rosada e outras estórias verdadeiras e inverosímeis (short-stories, 1990)
• O coração dos bosques (poetry, 1991)
• A feira dos assombrados (novella, 1992
• Estação das Chuvas (novel, 1996)
• Creole (Novel, 1997)
• Fronteiras Perdidas, contos para viajar (short-stories, 1999)
• Um estranho em Goa (novel, 2000)
• Estranhões e Bizarrocos (children’s literature, 2000)
• A Substância do Amor e Outras Crónicas (chronicles, 2000)
• O Homem que Parecia um Domingo (short-stories, 2002)
• Catálogo de Sombras (short-stories, 2003)
• O Ano em que Zumbi Tomou o Rio (novel, 2003)
• The Book of Chameleons (novel, 2004)
• Manual Prático de Levitação (short-stories, 2005)
• My Father’s Wives (novel, 2007)

I've only read two books by him. I feel I must reread The Book of Chameleons one day; the ending is heartbreaking.

A Feira dos Assombrados (roughly 'The Haunted Fair), is a short read that reveals Márquez' influence on the writer: the story starts with inhuman bodies being fished from the river by the Dondo citizens (I though this was a shameless reference to Macondo, until I discovered it was a real place in Angola ), who lead a simple life selling their products on a fair amidst economic decay. The discovery of these bodies starts a narrative about the history of the Dondo people, in an out of joint manner (One Hundred Years of Solitude). Another aspect of the novella is about the town leader wanting to bury the bodies without the consent of the priest (Leaf Storm?) and how this causes a rift in the community.

On the strength of these two books I can say Agualusa is a writer I'll be reading more of in the future.