Saudade - by Suneeta Peres Da Costa (Paperback)

About the Book

A Goan immigrant family caught between their complicity in Portuguese rule and their own outsider status in Angola pre-independence.

Book Synopsis

A Goan immigrant family caught between their complicity in Portuguese rule and their own outsider status in Angola pre-independence.

1960s Angola. A Goan immigrant family finds itself caught between their complicity in Portuguese rule and their own outsider status in the period leading up to independence. Looking back on her childhood, the narrator of Suneeta Peres da Costa's novel captures with intense lyricism the difficult relationship between her and her mother, and the ways in which their intimate world is shaken by domestic violence, the legacies of slavery, and the end of empire. Her story unfolds into a growing awareness of the lies of colonialism and the political ruptures that ultimately lead to their exile.

Review Quotes

Saudade is a lyrical, bold evocation of childhood, enlivened by unforced flourishes of magical realism, that plays intricately on layers of awareness and awakening, on the notion of homecoming, and on complicity in injustice."--Sydney Morning Herald

"The search, in non-lusophone literatures, for the word's elusive meaning finds an echo in the search for a lost place, which illuminates Suneeta Peres da Costa's lyrical new novel Saudade."--Splice

"Suneeta Peres da Costa's novel Saudade will leave you feeling lost and homesick for a place of your own."--Books and Publishing

About the Author

Suneeta Peres da Costa was born in Sydney, Australia, to parents of Goan origin. She has published and produced widely across the genres of fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, and poetry. Her bestselling novel Homework was published by Bloomsbury in 1999.