Ingenious, consistently taut and witty' TLS 'Humorous and quizzical, with a light touch on weighty themes, the narrative darts about with lizard-like colour and velocity' Independent 'Strange, elliptical, charming' Guardian 'A poetic, beguiling meditation on truth and storytelling . . . from the dreamscapes of magical realism to a gripping political thriller and even a murder mystery' New Internationalist Félix Ventura trades in memories, a slippery character selling new pasts to people whose bright futures lack only a good lineage, and wiping clean the slate of their identity. In a narrative that darts between past and present Angola, a bookish albino man, a beautiful woman, a mysterious foreigner and a witty talking lizard come together to discover their real origins. For theirs is a world where the truth seems to shift from moment to moment and where history itself is up for grabs . . . WINNER OF THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE 'A work of fierce originality' Independent 'Without doubt one of the most important Portuguese-language writers of his generation' ANTÓNIO LOBO ANTUNES 'Cross J. M. Coetzee with Gabriel García Márquez and you've got José Eduardo Agualusa' ALAN KAUFMAN Translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn