Confession of the Lioness

Shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award 2017
A finalist for the 2015 Man Booker International Prize

My sister Silência was the most recent victim of the lions, which have been tormenting our village for some weeks now…

When Mariamar Mpepe’s sister is killed by lions, her father imprisons her at home. With only the ghost of her sister for company, she dreams of escape, and of the hunter who abandoned her years before.

I’m the last of the hunters. And this is my last hunt.

Archangel Bullseye, born into a long line of marksmen, is summoned back to Kulumani. But as he tracks the lions in the surrounding wilderness, his suspicions grow – that the darkest threats lie not outside the village, but at its very heart.

What was happening was what always happened: The lions were coming back…

Set in a forgotten corner of East Africa haunted by superstition, tradition and the shades of civil war, this is a struggle that blurs the savagery of nature, and the savagery of man.