The Living and the Rest - by Jose Eduardo Agualusa (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A Financial Times Fiction in Translation Book of the Year and Winner of the Portuguese PEN Prize

A funny and lively tale about a group of writers stranded at a literary festival turns increasingly ominous as it explores the nature of life and of time, and the extraordinary power of imagination and the written word.

Writers from across Africa descend on the Isle of Mozambique to participate in the island's first literary festival. When a sudden cyclone strikes the land, they are cut off from the mainland.

One writer wakes from sleep with lines running through her head, reaching for a small red notebook with dream trash written on the cover. Another posts a picture of a writing desk gleaming in the ancient light of the Captains-General Palace, now a museum. The caption: "If I had a desk like this, I'm sure I'd write more. I'm sure I'd write better."

Agualusa traces their conversations as they wonder together whether the world they know has ended, and what, real or imagined, might come next. They talk, and set pens to paper, in this sometimes-surreal tale of how the physical world is changing rapidly around us and how we can (and must) forge new contexts.

Review Quotes

"Agualusa's novel is much more inventive and outward-looking than your typical writers' panel, devoting time to the peculiarities of perspective and the vagaries of contemporary history, with a particular focus on the dense interweaving of culture, religion and art that characterizes life on the island. . . [The Living and the Rest] successfully sublimates political, cultural and human concerns into daily life." --Robert Rubsam, The Washington Post

"In José Eduardo Agualusa's clever and appealing The Living and the Rest . . . disaster yields to the same contest of wills, domesticated intrigues, and creative urges going on around the world amid talk about book tours, festivals, workshops, residencies, panels, publishers, agents, how to become more visible on the Internet." --Tom Wilhelmus, The Hudson Review

About the Author

José Eduardo Agualusa is one of the leading voices in the Portuguese language today. In 2019, Agualusa received the Angolan National Prize for Culture and Arts. He won the International Dublin Literary Award in 2017 for A General Theory of Oblivion. Also available in English are Creole, The Book of Chameleons, The Society of Reluctant Dreamers; My Father's Wives; Rainy Season; and A Practical Guide to Levitation. The Living and the Rest won the 2021 Portuguese PEN Prize.

Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor, and translator. He is the author of several works of non-fiction, including The Tower Menagerie. His translations (from Portuguese, Spanish, and French) include fiction from Africa, Europe and Latin America, and he has translated works by Machado de Assis, José Luís Peixoto, María Dueñas, José Saramago, Eduardo Halfon, Corsino Fortes, and Roger Mello.