The Sword and the Spear
A Novel
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The second novel in the exhilarating Sands of the Emperor trilogy, following the Man Booker International Prize finalist Woman of the Ashes
Mozambique, 1895. After an attack on his quarters, the defeated Portuguese sergeant Germano de Melo needs to be taken to the hospital. The only one within reach is along the river Inhambane, so his lover Imani undertakes an arduous rescue mission, accompanied by her father and brother. Meanwhile, war rages between the Portuguese occupiers and Ngungunyane’s warriors—battles waged with sword and spear, until the arrival of a devastating new weapon destined to secure European domination. Germano wants to start a new life with Imani, but the Portuguese military has other plans for the injured soldier. And Imani's father has his own plan for his daughter’s future: as one of Ngungunyane's wives, she would be close enough to the tyrant to avenge the destruction of their village.
With elegance and compassion, Mia Couto's The Sword and the Spear illustrates the futility of war and the porous boundaries between apparently foreign cultures—boundaries of which entire societies, but also friends and lovers, conceive as simultaneously insuperable and in decline.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The modest second entry in Couto's Sands of the Emperor trilogy (after Woman of the Ashes) picks up with the Portuguese Sgt. Germano de Melo nursing severely injured hands in late 1890s Mozambique. Germano boats up the River Inharrime with his VaChopi translator and love, the teenage Imani, and others in search of medical assistance. Stopping to rest in Sana Benene, they're welcomed by a priest and his miracle worker partner, who mends Germano while the Gaza Empire battles Portuguese soldiers for control of neighboring lands. Members of both warring parties visit Sana Benene, including the Portuguese Capt. Santiago Mata, who carts off a healed Germano from the group, which breaks up once Imani, carrying out her father's plan, agrees to infiltrate Gaza to marry and murder Emperor Ngungunyane, thus ending the war. As in Couto's earlier novel, knowledge of Mozambique's history helps one appreciate the plot nuances, while much of the narrative works to set the table for the concluding volume, particularly as Couto's isolated characters barrel toward each other near the novel's climax. Though the prose occasionally veers into histrionic ("This river up which we were traveling crossed territories of fire, riven by hunger and blood"), Couto's protagonists remain consistently fascinating. Readers of the first installment will appreciate this.
