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.

米亚·科托（Mia Couto）,莫桑比克诗人、小说家，当今非洲葡萄牙语文学的中坚力量。十四岁开始在报刊发表诗歌，已出版作品三十多部，译成二十三种语言，长篇小说处女作《梦游之地》入选“20世纪最伟大的12部非洲小说”，2013年获葡语文学最高奖项卡蒙斯文学奖，与萨拉马戈 同等殊荣；2014年击败村上春树，获得有“美国诺贝尔文学奖”之称的纽斯塔特国际文学奖；2015年凭《耶稣撒冷》入围布克国际文学奖，2017年，最新作品《母狮的忏悔》入选都柏林文学奖短名单，被认为是近年来诺贝尔奖最有力竞争者。他开创性地将葡萄牙语与莫桑比克民族性相融合，使非洲文学焕发出前所未有的新生机。