Mozambican author Bento Baloi’s novel Beneath the Scar is now available in English translation.

Originally published in Portuguese as No Verso da Cicatriz, the novel won the inaugural Prémio Mia Couto for best Mozambican novel published in 2021.

The novel follows Bernardo, torn from his home and unjustly labeled “unproductive” in the aftermath of Mozambique’s independence. Caught in the machinery of Operation Production Engagement, he is sent to a reeducation camp in Milange, a brutal exile for those the system deemed idle. Left behind in Maguaza is his beloved Maria Helena, alone and pregnant. Baloi explores how love and memory prove indelible, refusing erasure even under the weight of state violence.

The English translation is by Sandra Tamele, whose extraordinary career bridges architecture and literary translation. Since publishing her first translation in 2007, Tamele has translated over 50 novels and short story collections, including works by Nobel Literature Laureates Wole Soyinka and Naguib Mahfouz. Understanding translation’s crucial role in African literary circulation, she launched an annual literary translation competition for young Mozambicans in 2015, which led to the establishment of her publishing house Editora Trinta Zero Nove in 2018. Her translation work has earned her a PEN Translates Award in 2022 for Tchanaze by Carlos Paradona, while her translation of Yara Monteiro’s Loose Ties was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award in 2023.

Baloi, born in 1968 in Vieira, a suburb of Maputo, brings thirty years of journalism experience and a significant theater career to his fiction. His debut novel Recados da Alma appeared in 2016 before No Verso da Cicatriz earned him the Mia Couto Prize.

Read the Synopsis below:

Torn from his home and unjustly labelled as “unproductive,” Bernardo’s story is a testament to the power of resistance and resilience. In the aftermath of Mozambique’s independence, he is caught up in the machinery of Operation Production Engagement and sent to a reeducation camp in Milange — a brutal exile for those deemed idle by the system. His beloved Maria Helena is left in Maguaza, alone and pregnant. Love, much like memory, proves to be indelible, refusing to be easily erased. In “Beneath the Scar,” Bento Baloi delves into the journey of a man who, armed with longing and dignity, survives the weight of ideology and the cruelty of being forgotten. This novel is a profound exploration of the scars that history leaves on the human spirit and the quiet rebellions of the heart. It serves as a tribute to those who endured, those who vanished, and those who waited. It is a powerful story of love, exile, and the struggle to remain human when everything conspires to make you disappear.

The novel is available now through African Books Collective.