A dark, poetic mystery about the tribal women of Kulumani and the lionesses that hunt them

Told through two haunting interwoven diaries, Mia Couto's Confession of the Lioness reveals the enigmatic world of Kulumani, an isolated village in Mozambique whose traditions and beliefs are threatened when ghostlike lionesses begin hunting and killing the women who live there.

Mariamar, a young woman from the village, finds her life thrown into chaos just as the marksman hired to kill the lionesses, the outsider Archangel Bullseye, arrives in town. Mariamar's sister was recently killed in one of the attacks, and her father has imprisoned her in his home, where she relives painful memories of past abuse and hopes to be rescued by Archangel. Meanwhile, Archangel attempts to track the lionesses out in the wilderness, but when he begins to suspect there is more to these predators than meets the eye, he slowly starts to lose control of his hands. The hunt grows more and more dangerous, until it's no safer inside Kulumani than outside it. As the men of Kulumani feel increasingly threatened by the outsider, the forces of modernity upon their culture, and the animal predators closing in, it becomes clear that the lionesses might not be real lionesses at all, but rather spirits conjured by the ancient witchcraft of the women themselves.

Both a riveting mystery and a poignant examination of women's oppression, Confession of the Lioness combines reality, superstition, and magic realism in an atmospheric, gripping novel.

An Amazon Best Book of July 2015: Mia Couto, a prominent and award-winning African writer, has written a novel that shimmers like a diamond in the rough. Many years ago, a small village in Mozambique was hunted by lions. The lions killed dozens and eventually a hunter was hired to destroy the feline menace. Coutoâ??s fable-like tale alternates between the stories of a young woman in the village and the hunter who is haunted by his past and his profession. As the days pass, the threat of the lion seems to go beyond the material world and like the people in the town you begin to wonder: are the lions real or are there darker forces afoot? Does the lion prowl to seek retribution for not honoring the dead or to condemn the men who brutally oppress women? Is the wild animal that different from the savagery of man? Translated from the Portuguese, Confession of the Lioness feels like a classic thatâ??s been unearthed from a time long ago â?? itâ??s direct, beautifully woven and imbued with a sense of wisdom that feels, like the animal it chronicles, majestic. --Al Woodworth

Recommended to book clubs by 0 of 0 members.