Saudade
Publisher: Giramondo Publishing Co
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Format: paperback
Number of pages: 114
ISBN-13: 9781925336634
Description: A coming-of-age story set in Angola in the period leading up to the colony's independence, Saudade focuses on a Goan immigrant family caught between complicity in Portuguese rule, and their dependence on the Angolans who are their servants.The title speaks to the melancholy longing for homeland that haunts the characters, and especially the young girl who is the book's protagonist and narrator. Suneeta Peres da Costa's novella captures with intense lyricism the difficult relationship between the girl 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 intellectual awakening unfolds into a growing awareness of the lies of colonialism, and the violent political ruptures that ultimately lead to her father's death, and their exile.