NOMINATED FOR THE 2019 BEST TRANSLATED BOOK AWARD
A VANITY FAIR HOT TYPE BOOK FOR APRIL 2018
A VULTURE MUST-READ TRANSLATED BOOK FROM THE PAST 5 YEARS
A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK OF 2018
A LIT HUB FAVOURITE BOOK OF THE YEAR
A WORLD LITERATURE TODAY NOTABLE TRANSLATION OF 2018
In a crumbling apartment block in the Angolan city of Luanda, families work, laugh, scheme, and get by. In the middle of it all is the melancholic Odonato, nostalgic for the country of his youth and searching for his lost son. As his hope drains away and as the city outside his doors changes beyond all recognition, Odonato’s flesh becomes transparent and his body increasingly weightless.
A captivating blend of magical realism, scathing political satire, tender comedy, and literary experimentation, Transparent City offers a gripping and joyful portrait of urban Africa quite unlike any before yet published in English, and places Ondjaki, indisputably, among the continent’s most accomplished writers.
BIO
Ondjaki was born in Luanda, Angola, in 1977. He studied in Lisbon, Portugal, and is the author of five novels, three short story collections, and various books of poems and stories for children. He has also made a documentary film, May Cherries Grow, about his native city. His books have been translated into eight languages and have earned him major literary prizes in Angola, Portugal, France, and Brazil. In 2008, Ondjaki was awarded the Grinzane for Africa Prize in the category of Best Young Writer. In 2012, the Guardian named him one of its Top Five African Writers.
REVIEWS
“Vibrant…Ondjaki is experimentally bold, and his prose shifts through a kaledioscope 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
“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
“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
“Ondjaki’s prose pulses with life…shine[s] with an unexpected clarity.” -- World Literature Today
“A richly imagined, tender and also critical portrait of the city in apocalyptic times.” -- CBC’s Writers & Company
[P] Biblioasis / May 15, 2018
0.8" H x 8.2" L x 5.4" W (0.9 lbs) 400 pages