Nishite paoa desh

(Bangla, Somnambulist land)

Mia Couto

Translated from Portuguese, Terra Sonâmbula (1992), by Rita Ray

JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2020

An old man and a young boy conversing, suspended against the perpetual twilight of a country in political limbo, this literally constitutes the dark colours and image I placed across the cover spread of Nishite paoa desh, the receding layers in their profiles somewhat like the labyrinthine depths that they will travel – into their collective pasts and identities.