#daniel hahn

An agoraphobic woman named Ludo is left behind in her Luanda apartment when her sister and brother-in-law flee an incoming change in political leadership. She walls herself in, forging a careful existence of survival for herself and her white German Shepherd Phantom. 

A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa, translated by Daniel Hahn, is a compelling novel. Ludo captures the city in fragments—a man running, a pygmy hippo dancing, chickens clucking. The narrator then pulls the reader into those other stories, sharing the epic number of characters and their stories, creating a web of coincidences that come together to form a surreal, small city history, a collage of stories that eventually merge. 

For more books in translation from Central Africa, see my list of recommendations for Book Riot!