My Father's Wives, By Jose Eduardo Agualusa

Happiness in spite of history

In 2007, The Book of Chameleons by Angolan author Jose Eduardo Agualusa won The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. His latest novel, already on this year's long-list, touches on similar motifs to that playfully poignant book: the aftermath of civil strife in the African states Portugal once ruled; the vibrant blend of roots and shades that lends their culture such panache; and the troubling quest to find where one belongs in a place where the present speaks in a babble of voices and the past fades into a mist of myth.

Yet My Father's Wives is a very different book: diffuse and episodic rather than tightly focused; rich in historical sidelights and deft character-sketches where Chameleons plumped for whimsy and mystery. This road novel boasts several distinct lanes.

Laurentina, a Lisbon-based film-maker, criss-crosses southern Africa from Angola to Mozambique via South Africa in search of the truth about her reputed biological father. The late jazz virtuoso Faustino Manso, a double-bass wizard, supposedly left seven wives and 18 children in his wake.

In parallel with Laurentina's quest for her far-flung dynasty, a further frame-story gives us an author-figure and his partner - another documentary director – who muse on the kinship of dreams, yarns and lies. This format sounds too tricksy, but Agualusa is a writer of such captivating charm that it it seldom weighs down these high-spirited travellers. Daniel Hahn translates with a swing in his step and a warmth in his tone that deftly matches the mood.

Laurentina and her companions – boyfriend, cousin, driver – embody the creole coalition of ex-Portuguese Africa, children of a "splendid confusion of races" with a special gift for happiness in spite of bloody history. In Africa, "where some see light, others see only shadows". Agualusa chooses the light. A radiant humour and humanity speeds his novel through its picaresque twists and turns.

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