Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Splitting through the clear waters beside the rainbow hotel, Daniel Benchimol finds a waterproof mango-yellow camera and uncovers the photographed reveries of a famous Mozambican artist, Moira. In this exquisite new novel, Agualusa's reader loses all sense of reality. In The Society of Reluctant Dreamers, Daniel dreams of Julio Cort zar in the form of an ancient giant cedar, his friend Hossi transforming into a dark crow, and most often of the Cotton-Candy-Hair-Woman, Moira, staring right back at him. After emails back-and-forth, Moira and Daniel meet, and Daniel becomes involved in a mysterious project with a Brazilian neuroscientist, who's creating a machine to photograph people's dreams. Set against the dense web of Angola's political history, Daniel crosses the hazy border between dream and reality, sleepwalking towards a twisted and entirely strange present.
Synopsis
"False memories and clairvoyant dreams combine in Agualusa's sweeping, intricately plotted tale of personal and political history in Angola . . . " - Publishers Weekly When Daniel Benchimol--consummate dreamer--uncovers the photographed reveries of a famous Mozambican artist, Moira, his fascination quickly develops to obsession as the sight lines between reality and dreams get harder to bring into focus
Daniel Benchimol spends his dreaming hours interviewing revolutionaries and writers. In this treacherous sleepscape, we find the Angolan anti-communist Jonas Savimbi, Muammar Gaddafi, hunched and hiding in a gutter, and Julio Cort zar as a great billowing tree, speaking to Daniel through an alphabet of clouds. He dreams wild dreams of people he's never met, squinting at them as if submerged in the hazy waters of southern Angola.
When Daniel finds a camera on the beach, he becomes obsessed with the woman in the photos. Moira is a Mozambican artist with a similar preoccupation with her subconscious life - she stages her dreams in her artwork. The two meet, and together they explore the cloudy edges of their nightly visions, tugging at the fringed hem of the real. The Society of Reluctant Dreamers is a delicately crafted glimpse into the aftermath of Angolan independence, a postcard sent to prod the illusion of peace and freedom.