CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright Notice

Epigraph

Introductory Note

  1. Unearthed Stars

  2. The Sergeant’s First Letter

  3. The Soil’s Page

  4. The Sergeant’s Second Letter

  5. The Sergeant Who Listened to Rivers

  6. The Sergeant’s Third Letter

  7. On Bats’ Wings

  8. The Sergeant’s Fourth Letter

  9. Message from the Dead, Silence from the Living

10. The Sergeant’s Fifth Letter

11. The Sin of the Moths

12. The Sergeant’s Sixth Letter

13. Between Oaths and Promises

14. The Sergeant’s Seventh Letter

15. A King Made Dust

16. The Sergeant’s Eighth Letter

17. A Lightning Flash from the Soil

18. The Sergeant’s Ninth Letter

19. White Horses, Black Ants

20. The Sergeant’s Tenth Letter

21. A Brother Fashioned from Ash

22. The Sergeant’s Eleventh Letter

23. A Wingless Bat

24. The Sergeant’s Twelfth Letter

25. Lands, Wars, Burials, and Banishments

26. The Sergeant’s Thirteenth Letter

27. Hands in Flight

28. The Sergeant’s Last Letter

29. A Road Made of Wate

Also by Mia Couto

A Note About the Author and Translator

Copyright