In his translated historical fiction, The Society of Reluctant Dreamers, Jose Eduardo Agualusa, an Angolan journalist, narrates the inherited political complexities akin to that of modern day Angola.

Whilst going through a messy divorce and losing his job for criticising the Angolan government in a publication, Daniel Benchimol visits the Rainbow Hotel. There he finds reprieve from the reality of his life but literally enters into a hazy world of dreams that distorts the boundary between his reality and dreams.

The Rainbow Hotel is itself dreamy, “Seven bungalows, thatched roofed, each painted in a different colour, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet …” lined up along the coast.

“There are people who swim out of pure pleasure. There are those who swim to keep in shape. I swim to think better.”

Daniel swims into the free ocean and there he finds a waterproof camera of a mango-yellow colour. He later decides to check if anything can be retrieved from it only to discover an image of a woman, Moira, whom he has seen in his dreams. Moira happens to be a known artist whose work is inspired by dreams.

Hossi was a former guerilla fighter for UNITA (National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola) but in his second life, he is the owner of the Rainbow Hotel. He not only keeps a journal that would later be useful in saving the day but also reveals to Daniel his own surreal experience with dreams and his past as a fighter.

In the midst of Daniel’s evolving curiosity about dreams, Karinguiri, his daughter,  is arrested with six other youths for staging a protest during a Presidential address at the capital of Angola. Karinguiri is defining her identity away from her shielded life in a pompous upbringing with her mother and her down to earth but politically passive father – albeit being a journalist. She feels compelled to rebel against the injustices that impact the lives of the majority of Angolans.

Daniel is now empowered by his world of dreams. His exploration of romance and dreams with Moira and his discourse with Hossi lead him to support his daughter’s activism but he needs to free her from prison. They together devise a plan aimed at getting Karinguiri and her friends released.

Will they succeed? Can they dream a new Angola to life?

Agualusa’s novel gives us a glimpse of Angola’s past and present, and possible future. The reader gets a feel of the romanticism of the ocean and its people. The pace of the story equally at one point in low tide and at another in high tide. This is a good book to consider when looking for something unsophisticated but still curious. As with the ocean, the reader needs to patiently flow through both it’s mundane and exciting moments. One would also need some background knowledge of Angola’s history to better appreciate the narrative.

His other well known novel, A General Theory of Oblivion, won the International Dublin Literary Award.  The Book of Chameleons, published in 2006, won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize – the first won by an African writer. He currently lives in Mozambique where he continues his work as a journalist and author.

*The former Portuguese colony of Angola has had a complex past and present. The country went into civil war in 1975 upon receiving independence. This was succeeded by the Republic of Angola in 1992 and elections held, but peace was not sustained. Angola was immersed in a proxy war of the Cold War era up until 2002.