The novel "Sleepwalking Land" by Mozambican writer Mia Couto was distinguished this Wednesday (2nd), in France, with the Laure-Bataillon prize, awarded to the best foreign novel translated into French.
This debut novel had already been published in 1994 in that European country by publisher Albin Michel. However, this year the novel was republished by Metaillé publisher in a translation by Elisabete Monteiro Rodrigues.
Published in 1992, Sleepwalking Land reflects on hope between the end of one era and the beginning of another, in a place marked and devastated by armed conflict.
In Mozambique, the Fernando Leite Couto Foundation currently has a "pocket" format re-edition of the work, in the expectation that more readers, especially young people, can have access to a Mozambican classic, considered one of the best African books of the 20th century.
The Laure-Bataillon prize was established in 1986 as a joint initiative of the cities of Nantes and Saint-Nazare and is intended to honor foreign authors and their respective translators into French.
It is worth noting that, last year, the Laure-Bataillon prize was won by writer Isabela Figueiredo, who was born in Mozambique and moved to Portugal in 1975 as a returnee. Figueiredo was distinguished with the work "La grosse", translated by João Viegas.
