OUR BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS, translated from Portuguese by Lynn Miller-Lachmann

126pp, illus., hardback, d/w, Enchanted Lion Books, New York 2024

ISBN: 9781592704101

A young adult graphic novella set in the 1990s in Luanda, Angola, during the last decade of the  civil war.

During a power outrage two teens sit talking in the backyard, and find themselves confiding in each other and discovering an intimacy that would not have happened otherwise.

“Miller-Lachmann does a remarkable job of making this rich piece accessible to an English-language readership. Ondjaki’s poetic prose draws an achingly potent picture of two young people reaching for each other during a sudden moment of possibility, while the white text on the black pages and Gonçalves’ rough, white-on-black illustrations help create an immersive experience. As the best art does, this collaboration makes a very specific story - two young people, one night - feel universal. A brilliantly elemental exploration of the light that darkness can bring.” Kirkus Reviews

“An existential exploration of the heart... While the boy and girl discuss their pain and the cruelty of war, they rejoice in the little things the darkness has brought them: closeness, silence, time with nothing else to do and a determination to make this night together as beautiful as possible. With such a stunning representation of not only pain and conflict, but also the joy that is still able to make its way through, Our Beautiful Darkness is sure to leave readers considering, appreciating, and reflecting on the world around them." Bookpage

Ondjaki was born in Luanda in 1977. He has written novels, short-stories, poetry, children's books and film scripts. He was awarded the 2008 Grinzane for Africa Prize in the category of Best Young Writer, and the José Saramago Prize and Littérature-Monde Prize for his adult novel Transparent City.

António Jorge Gonçalves is a Portuguese creator of graphic novels and picture books. A long-time political cartoonist for the Portuguese newspaper Público, he has also published in Courrier International and Le Monde. He created a live digital drawing technique with which he has performed onstage with musicians, actors, and dancers worldwide. He received Portugal’s National Illustration Prize for Our Beautiful Darkness.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann is the translator of The World in a Second and Lines, Squiggles, Letters, Words, and the author of the young adult novels Rogue, Gringolandia, and Surviving Santiago. She lives in New York City and spends part of each year in Lisbon.