It is one of the first works of Jose Eduardo Agualusa that addresses the strange connections between persons through a fictionalized past.
Felix Ventura is albino. Antiquarian bookseller by profession, in his spare time he sells past. He lives in Angola, namely in Luanda, in a small villa in peaceful communion with a gecko who laughs and who is the narrator on call. It is from this set of improbable elements that we depart for an unpredictable narrative that emerges from the sale of the first pass to a war photographer, José Buchmann excited with his new life story he goes beyond the limits imposed by the fiction created by our reluctant "historian". This is the premise of an amazing book; again we see the magic of Africa thru the intangible writing of José Eduardo Agualusa, but at the same time palpable. I love the title. Arises the mystery and imagination looses before you even gaze the initial words. When reading the first pages I appreciate that the narrator of this book is a kind of lizard with a very curious peculiarity (in addition to others that I refrain from referring), audible laughs. Unlike other African writers I have mentioned in this magazine, Agualusa does not use the joyous cacophony of African language, it invades us with improbable stories of fantastic characters that are so unusual, they do not seen real, but because the background is Africa all appears to be entirely credible as strange as may seems. I do not know if you understood? Even better is to read this book and delight you with this vendor in the past. Good reading.
