A General Theory of Oblivion [Paperback]

As the country goes through various political upheavals from colony to socialist republic to civil war to peace and capitalism, the world outside seeps into Ludo's life through snippets on the radio, voices from next door, glimpses of someone peeing on a balcony, or a man fleeing his pursuers. 
A General Theory of Oblivionis a perfectly crafted, wild patchwork of a novel, playing on a love of storytelling and fable.Winner of the 2017 Dublin International Literary Award!
Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016
Shortlisted for the Three Percent Best Translated Book Award


Like Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa and Argentine Jorge Luis Borges, Portuguese-Angolan writer José Eduardo Agualusa is a literary trickster who dazzles with his artificial fictional creations... Agualusa is a master of varied genre structure, and he has great fun shifting from spy novel to pastoral narrative to interior reflection, but his heart is deeply invested in his characters, and each individual's story burns itself into the reader to make us reconsider our capacity for empathy and understanding. — Minneapolis Star Tribune

A master storyteller...It’s a tribute to Agualusa’s storytelling that the bittersweet redemption found by his characters feels authentic; he and they have earned it. — Washington Independent Review of Books

  The story challenges what we imagine to be the clearly drawn lines between 'hero' and 'villain' and forces a reconsideration of history and our fictions. It does what the best of literature ought to do: keep us glued to our seats, unable to break away.  — Maaza Mengiste,Words Without Borders


Each page brimming with imagination — The Irish Independent

In this tale, based on real-life events, one of Angola’s most inventive novl££