The story of a group of friends who create a perfect childhood in a revolutionary socialist country fighting a war.

Luanda, Angola, 1990. Ndalu is a normal twelve-year old boy in an extraordinary time and place. Like his friends, he enjoys laughing at his teachers, avoiding homework and telling tall tales. But Ndalu's teachers are Cuban, his homework assignments include writing essays on the role of the workers and peasants, and the tall tales he and his friends tell are about a criminal gang called Empty Crate which specializes in attacking schools. Ndalu is mystified by the family servant, Comrade Antonio, who thinks that Angola worked better when it was a colony of Portugal, and by his Aunt Dada, who lives in Portugal and doesn't know what a ration card is. In a charming voice that is completely original, Good Morning Comrades tells the story of a group of friends who create a perfect childhood in a revolutionary socialist country fighting a bitter war. But the world is changing around these children, and like all childhood's Ndalu's cannot last. An internationally acclaimed novel, already published in half a dozen countries, Good Morning Comrades is an unforgettable work of fiction by one of Africa's most exciting young writers.

NOMINATED FOR THE 2019 BEST TRANSLATED BOOK AWARD A VANITY FAIR HOT TYPE BOOK FOR APRIL 2018 A VULTURE MUST-READ TRANSLATED BOOK FROM THE PAST 5 YEARS A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK OF 2018 A LIT HUB FAVOURITE BOOK OF THE YEAR A WORLD LITERATURE TODAY NOTABLE TRANSLATION OF 2018 In a crumbling apartment block in the Angolan city of Luanda, families work, laugh, scheme, and get by. In the middle of it all is the melancholic Odonato, nostalgic for the country of his youth and searching for his lost son. As his hope drains away and as the city outside his doors changes beyond all recognition, Odonato’s flesh becomes transparent and his body increasingly weightless. A captivating blend of magical realism, scathing political satire, tender comedy, and literary experimentation, Transparent City offers a gripping and joyful portrait of urban Africa quite unlike any before yet published in English, and places Ondjaki, indisputably, among the continent’s most accomplished writers.

"Seventh Prince, have you seen how well I've painted your smoky makeup today?" "Hong Liang, Miss Qiao has a sharp eye. She is to be escorted back to the mansion and is to be accompanied by Su Erzhong to treat Miss Qiao." "Hey, Seventh Prince, don't go yet. There's nothing wrong with my eyes, and I haven't slept for the whole night. I've written a few poems for you, you can listen to them." Seventh Prince was the heavens, Seventh Prince was the earth, and Seventh Prince was the radish and vegetables. Small cool is a flower, small cool is a treasure, small cool is that day fairy. "Ah — the flower and the radish with the fairy, a natural pair!" Just as she finished speaking, the purple-clothed servant girl stood beside the pink-clothed lady with big strides and also held up the cloth in her hand. She recited: "You are the number one marshal in the world, I am the prettiest in the world, you and I love each other and have a fat child to kiss!"

"Seventh Prince, do you see the smoky makeup I drew for you today?""Hongliang, Miss Qiao has an eyesight ailment. Take her back to the residence. I request that you accompany me to treat Miss Qiao.""Hey, Seventh Prince, don't go away yet. There's nothing wrong with my eyes, and I haven't slept for the whole night. I wrote a few poems for you, you can listen to them.""The seventh prince is the sky, the seventh prince is the earth, and the seventh prince is the radish and vegetables." Small cool is a flower, small cool is a treasure, small cool is that day fairy. "Ah — the flower and the radish with the fairy, a natural pair!"Just as she finished speaking, the purple-clothed servant girl stood beside the pink-clothed lady with big strides and also held up the cloth in her hand. She recited: "You are the number one marshal in the world, I am the prettiest in the world, you and I love each other and have a fat child to kiss!"

"Nineteen Eighty-Four" revealed George Orwell as one of the twentieth century's greatest mythmakers. While the totalitarian system that provoked him into writing it has since passed into oblivion, his harrowing cautionary tale of a man trapped in a political nightmare has had the opposite fate: its relevance and power to disturb our complacency seem to grow decade by decade. In Winston Smith's desperate struggle to free himself from an all-encompassing, malevolent state, Orwell zeroed in on tendencies apparent in every modern society, and made vivid the universal predicament of the individual.