A review by rouge_red
Confession of the Lioness by Mia Couto

dark reflective medium-paced

3.5

This book is about shitty guys and the women/girls (sometimes also men)who patiently endure them.  The book was really intriguing in the different ways we deal with trauma- it's mostly perpetrated by men (a lot times by fathers) and the effect that has on the various women in the story. It's interesting to see how women are portrayed- as subservient, forbidden to enter certain spaces (much less seen during important events), as something to be "taken", etc. It's no wonder Kulumani is spoken of as a terrible place separate from the world full of no one and how that relates to the women who are killed. Because why not if the women were no longer alive or happy? So many times I wanted an actual lioness to bust in the room and carry away a useless man in her jaws. The resolution isn't exactly happy, but we see at least one woman, Mariamar, who is able to escape the cycle of abuse.