Description
“Ondjaki is experimentally bold, and his prose shifts through a kaleidoscope of registers, from the poetic to the political, the erotic to the absurd.”—Times Literary Supplement
My Street in Luanda brings together 42 short stories by the critically acclaimed and award-winning Angolan author Ondjaki, translated from Portuguese by Stephen Henighan. Ondjaki has established himself as a key writer of Angola with writing that is formally experimental and emotionally engaging, and this collection showcases stories from across his career.
Praise for Transparent City
“Vibrant . . . Ondjaki is experimentally bold, and his prose shifts through a kaleidoscope of registers, from the poetic to the political, the erotic to the absurd . . . Stephen Henighan’s thoughtful translation has an energetic lyricism and is alive to the echoes and vestiges of the African languages that imbue Ondjaki’s text . . . The novel begins and ends with a raging inferno, and yet it is as full of hope, appetite and libidinal energy as it is of grief and mourning.”
—Times Literary Supplement
“Darkly pretty . . . peppered with poetry . . . These disparate stories are woven into a beautiful narrative that touches on government corruption, the privatization of water, the dangers of extracting oil for wealth, and the bastardization of religion for profit. The novel reads like a love song to a tortured, desperately messed-up city that is undergoing remarkable transformations.”
—Publishers Weekly
“In telling the story of a man named Odonato, who is slowly fading out of existence, and the chaotic city around him, Ondjaki takes risks that actually smooth the flow. In other words, he’s experimental without being off-putting; it helps that his tale is both ecstatic and bittersweet. The language immerses the reader in the novel’s milieu, but also charts out unexpected dimensions.”
—Vulture
“A poetic, chaotic web of a book, hilarious and touching, written in a compelling run-on narrative, flowing and sensory. It has a wide scope and won’t be for the faint of heart, but those willing to take the leap will happily swim through the rushing current of this strange, dark comedy, with its tender characters and bizarre tales.”
—Book Riot
“It’s been a long time since I read a novel like Ondjaki’s Transparent City . . . It’s a hugely risk-taking book, in the way that it’s structured above all else, but also in its blend of stylized surrealism and harrowing realism. As it tells the story of a man whose body is gradually losing its presence, amidst chaos in the city around him, Transparent City achieves a tremendous sense of clarity. And its blend of the familiar and the uncanny seems decidedly suited to the experience of living through 2018.”
—LitHub
