 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "José Eduardo Agualusa" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
José Eduardo Agualusa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | José Eduardo Agualusa Alves da Cunha (1960-12-13)December 13, 1960 (age 65) |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Nationality | Angolan |
| Genre | Angolan History |
| Notable works | A General Theory of Oblivion |
| Notable awards | 2007Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2017International Dublin Literary Award |
José Eduardo Agualusa Alves da Cunha (born December 13, 1960) is anAngolan writer and columnist ofPortuguese andBrazilian descent.[1] He studiedagronomy andsilviculture inLisbon, Portugal. Currently he resides in theIsland of Mozambique, working as a writer and journalist. He also has been working to establish apublic library on the island.[2]
Agualusa writes predominantly in his native language,Portuguese.[3] His books have been translated into twenty-five languages, most notably intoEnglish by translatorDaniel Hahn, a frequent collaborator of his. Much of his writing focuses on thehistory of Angola.[4]
Rainy Season (Estação das Chuvas, 1996) is abiographical novel about Lidia do Carmo Ferreira, the Angolan poet and historian who disappeared mysteriously inLuanda in 1992.
Creole (Nação Crioula, 1997) tells the story of a secret love between the fictional Portuguese adventurerCarlos Fradique Mendes (a creation of the 19th-century Portuguese novelistEça de Queiroz) and Ana Olímpia de Caminha, a former slave who became one of the wealthiest persons in Angola.
The Book of Chameleons (O Vendedor de Passados, 2004) was excerpted inGods and Soldiers: ThePenguin Anthology of Contemporary African Writing in 2009. The original Portuguese title means "The Seller of Pasts" but Agualusa and Hahn mutually agreed to title itThe Book of Chameleons in English—a title that Agualusa liked so much that he repurposed it, in Portuguese, for a subsequent collection of short stories that has not yet been translated:O Livro dos Camaleões.
A General Theory of Oblivion (Teoria Geral do Esquecimento, 2012) tells the history of Angola from the perspective of a woman named Ludo who barricades herself in her Luandan apartment for three decades—beginning the day before the country's independence.
He has seen some success in English-speaking literary circles, most notably forA General Theory of Oblivion. That novel, written in 2012 and translated in 2015, was shortlisted for the 2016Man Booker International Prize,[5] and was the recipient of the 2017International Dublin Literary Award.[6]
Agualusa writes monthly for the Portuguese magazineLER and weekly for the Brazilian newspaperO Globo and the Angolan portalRede Angola. He hosts the radio programA Hora das Cigarras, about African music and poetry, on the channelRDP África. In 2006, he launched, with Conceição Lopes and Fatima Otero, the Brazilian publisher Língua Geral, dedicated exclusively to Portuguese-language authors.
Agualusa's work was described by Ana Mafalda Leite as sometimes providing "a link between history and fiction, between the account of past events and the description of what might have been possible." The critic continues, "The author tries...to capture the moment in which history becomes literature, to illustrate how literary imagination takes precedence over the historical by means of the fantastic and an oneiric vision of life." Her assessment of the author's skills is as follows: "Agualusa gives evidence not just of solid historical research but also of the literary talent which brings these characters to life."[7]
He has also published, in collaboration with fellow journalist Fernando Semedo and photographer Elza Rocha, a work of investigative reporting on the African community of Lisbon, entitledLisboa Africana (1993). Agualusa's playAquela Mulher was performed byBrazilian actressMarília Gabriela (directed byAntônio Fagundes) inSão Paulo, Brazil, in 2008 andRio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2009. He co-wrote the playChovem amores na Rua do Matador withMozambican writerMia Couto.
In June 2017, Agualusa, alongsideDaniel Hahn, his translator, was awarded theInternational Dublin Literary Award for his novelA General Theory of Oblivion.[11] Agualusa's work beat a shortlist of ten titles from around the world, including one written by Irish authorAnne Enright, to claim the €100,000 prize. Agualusa was awarded €75,000 personally, as the translator, Daniel Hahn, was entitled to a €25,000 share of the prize money.[12]
Nação Crioula (1997) was awarded theRTP Great Literary Prize.The Book of Chameleons (2006) won theIndependent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007. He is the first African writer to win the award since its inception in 1990.[13]
Agualusa benefited from three literary grants: the first awarded by the Portuguese Centro Nacional de Cultura in 1997 to writeNação Crioula (Creole); the second given in the year 2000 by the Portuguese Fundação Oriente allowing him to visitGoa, India, for three months which resulted inUm estranho em Goa; the third, in 2001, was prestiged by theGermanDeutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. Thanks to that grant, he lived one year inBerlin, where he wroteO Ano em que Zumbi Tomou o Rio. In 2009, he was invited by theDutch Residency for Writers inAmsterdam, where he wroteBarroco Tropical.
