A Practical Guide to Levitation

“This astonishing collection by Angolan writer Agualusa brims with imagination … Often mordantly funny … Agualusa’s wondrous tales balance fantasy with skillful historical storytelling and a palpable distaste for the politics of oppression.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A Practical Guide to Levitation brings together thirty of José Eduardo Aguaulusa’s short stories, some written just last year and some so old he doesn’t remember writing them. Naturally, there is a real variety to be found here … Agualusa’s literary idols pop us as characters … The stories … are brought together by abstract and metaphysical topics, with the backdrop of colonization and civil war everpresent.” – Colm McKenna, New Pages

“When a collection opens with a story called “Borges in Hell,” you might expect to have an idea of the book’s contents. And yes, this does begin with a tale of a certain influential writer realizing that he is in the wrong afterlife—establishing concepts of metaphysics, surrealism, and literary history that run throughout the book. But these stories also vary dramatically in tone, from stark realism to trips into the satirical uncanny. It’s a memorable showcase of one writer’s range.” – Tobias Carroll, Words Without Borders

“Agualusa’s amused take on eccentric behaviors and unaccountable obsesssions – his tone of momentary acceptance of the weird or uncanny in ordinary encounters – reminds me of the crónica genre in Spanish- and Portuguese-language newspapers … From beginning to end, each story here sparkles with wit, empathy, and blunt honesty. ” – Ron Slate, On the Seawall

“Mysterious events in Agualusa’s stories reveal a kinship with García Márquez, whereas events of mysterious ambiguity fall into Bolaño’s camp … Daniel Hahn’s translation successfully conveys that straight-faced equanimity needed for staring absurdities in the eyes.” — Tom Bowden, The Book Beat

Jose Eduardo Agualusa is a leading voice in Angolan and Portuguese literature. His works available in English include Creole, winner of the Portuguese Grand Prize for Literature; The Book of Chameleons, winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007; A General Theory of Oblivion, shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize and winner of the International Dublin Literary Award; The Society of Reluctant Dreamers; My Father’s Wives; and Rainy Season. In 2019, Agualusa received the Angolan National Prize for Culture and Arts, the most important literary prize in Angola. His novel Os Vivos e os Outros won the 2021 Portuguese PEN Prize.

Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor, and translator. He is the author of several non-fiction works, including the history book The Tower Menagerie. He edited The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature and co-edited The Ultimate Book Guide, a series of reading guides for children and teenagers. His translations span Portuguese, Spanish, and French, encompassing fiction from Africa, Europe, and Latin America.

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