Confession of the Lioness

In this latest from distinguished Mozambican writer Couto (The Tuner of Silences), a metaphysical tug of war between tradition and modernism, reason and superstition, is played out in the remote Mozambican village of Kulumani. The bush has become a living thing that stalks and kills young women. A lion is blamed for the deaths, and the government, ignoring the local tribesmen, calls on renowned hunter Archangel Bullseye to catch the predator. Mariamar Mpepe, the lone survivor of four sisters, confined to her home by her father, writes journal entries that, when interspersed chapter by chapter with Bullseye's diary, draw readers into a mystical, enigmatic backstory. As a child, Mariamar was plagued with a paralysis of unknown origin, a likely metaphor for the powerlessness of the women of Kulumani. At 16, she fell in love with an outsider, a hunter with whom she hoped to escape the stultifying village life. Could he be this same Archangel Bullseye? If so, is he the hunter or the hunted?