Sea Loves Me

December 7, 2020
Mozambican writer Couto (Woman of the Ashes) draws on African proverbs for a captivating collection of 64 brief, aphoristic stories, set mostly in Mozambique. In “The Fire,” an old man decides to dig a grave for his devoted, healthy wife, while he still has the strength. When the grave is ready, he declares he must kill her so the grave will not lie empty. She agrees (“You worked so hard to dig that hole. It is a pity that it should remain empty”), but by now he’s too weak to do it. In “The Day Mabata-Bata Exploded,” young orphan Azarias dreams of going to school. However, his uncle needs him to look after his cattle. When a prized ox mysteriously explodes, bursting “without so much as a moo,” Azarias decides to run away rather than face his uncle’s wrath. There are captivating stories of people at the margins like the title character in “Rose Caramela,” a “hunchback cripple” who ends up in an unexpected romance, and the Black bird seller in “The Bird Dreaming Baobab,” who angers the residents of a white neighborhood by passing through with his cages. Many entries elude easy interpretation, making them all the more haunting. Each story contains enchanting insights into human nature.