A GENERAL THEORY OF OBLIVION

240pp., paperback, Reprint, London (2015) 2016

Winner of the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award. Shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.

First published in 2012 in Portuguese as Teoria Geral do Esquecimento. Translated into English by Daniel Hahn.

On the eve of Angolan independence, Ludo bricks herself into her apartment, where she will remain for the next thirty years. She lives off vegetables and pigeons, burns her furniture and books to stay alive and writes her story on the walls of her home.

"Agualusa has already become one of lusophone Africa's most distinctive voices. In a line that was surely included to bait book reviewers, one of the novel's characters declares: 'A man with a good story is practically a king.' If this is true, then Agualusa can count himself among the continent's new royals." Financial Times

"The light detachment and readability of Louis de Bernières at his best, but combined with the sharp insights of JM Coetzee … Agualusa’s writing is a delight throughout." Scotsman

José Eduardo Agualusa was born in Huambo, Angola. He is the author of the novels Creole, awarded the Portuguese Grand Prize for Literature, and The Book of Chameleons, which won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.