A dark, poetic mystery about the tribal women of Kulumani and the lionesses that hunt them

Told through two haunting interwoven diaries, Mia Couto's Confession of the Lioness reveals the enigmatic world of Kulumani, an isolated village in Mozambique whose traditions and beliefs are threatened when ghostlike lionesses begin hunting and killing the women who live there.

The young Mariamar, whose sister was recently killed in an attack, has been imprisoned by her father in his home. Meanwhile, a marksman, the outsider Archangel Bullseye, has arrived to track the deadly lionesses, but as he pursues them in the wilderness, the hunt proves deadlier than imagined. As the predators continue to close in, and the village confronts the forces of modernity, it becomes clear that the lionesses may not be animals at all, but the spirits conjured by the village women’s ancient witchcraft.

Both a riveting mystery and a poignant examination of women’s oppression, this darkly poetic novel combines reality, superstition, and magical realism to startling effect.