Mia Couto quotes
1955 – · Mozambique, 20th–21st century · writer, poet, journalist and biologist
About Mia Couto
Born António Emílio Leite Couto in Beira on 5 July 1955, he publishes as Mia Couto. After working in journalism around Mozambique’s independence and later training in biology, he produced novels, stories and poems — notably Terra Sonâmbula (1992) — that treat memory, war and landscape through linguistic invention. Winner of the Camões Prize (2013) and the Neustadt Prize (2014).
Works: Raiz de Orvalho; Terra Sonâmbula; O Último Voo do Flamingo; Um Rio Chamado Tempo, uma Casa Chamada Terra
Quotes
“In life, only death is certain. Everything else sways between the two shores of doubt.”
Source: A Varanda do Frangipani, 1996 · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording is verified as by Mia Couto and is cited as coming from the novel A Varanda do Frangipani (1996).
- What remains uncertain
- Attribution is supported by secondary online catalogs but no edition page or chapter was located in the sources found.
The line pins one absolute — death — to show that everything living is shaped by shifting accounts and memories. In Couto's novel this idea underlies a polyphonic plot where truth emerges from clashing versions rather than from a single fixed fact.