A delightful poetic book, and told by a witty, though rather unusual narrator, a gecko.

Set in Angola just after the civil war, the story unfolds in vignettes, seemingly unrelated at first -- recollections of his life now as a gecko and of his past as a man, his dreams, and observations of what goes on in the home of an albino, Felix, where he also lives (on the wall somewhere behind the bookshelves). Felix earns his living as a fabricator of pasts (the Portuguese title translates into Seller of Pasts) --- he is sought after, mainly by petty and ambitious politicians and newly successful businessmen, who think it necessary to be descended from aristocratic or venerable lineage. One day, a photojournalist comes and demands a fictitious lineage. Events unfold so that we see imaginary history enter into a collision course with present reality that has its roots in an enigmatic past, and without meaning to Felix enters the tableau he created and fact and fiction come together, and we are met with a rather unexpected climax.

It is with a delicate and clever touch that Agualusa, who won the Independent's Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007 for this, dealt with the themes of ambiguity of identity, and mutability of truth in this dream-like narrative. ( )

The Book of Chameleons has been widely and highly reviewed since it came out in English translation in 2006. At about 127 pages it can be read in a day or less but it contains many building blocks to keep one busy. There are philosophical and literary meditations. A spy plot. A love story. And some unique concepts like a narrator who is a lizard on the wall, or a man who sells invented pasts. Ultimately I found it somewhat unrewarding because many of allusions and places and events were unknown to me, and the central idea of invented histories didn't have enough space to be more fully explored. ( )

The narrator, a chameleon, allows us to witness the life of
a single middle aged man in whose house he lives, and whom earns his living by making up life stories to sell to those who need a new past. We are introduced to several characters related to him, in a short novel divided in very small chapters, beautifully written. Although brief, the novel is full of interesting ideas and very evocative descriptions. It is a real treat. ( )

A little gem of a novel, the Book of Chameleons unexpectedly features a gecko as narrator. Excellent novels seems to have time and poise. There is nothing hurried in this book, despite it finishing in fewer than two hundred pages. Even the dream sequences, often an ugly addition, are expertly incorporated. This is a book that explores memory, identity and the past. Much recommended, it is what Borges would have written had he tackled a full length novel (and had an editor that insisted on removing all literary references.) ( )

As the title of the book suggests, this book is about shifting identities. Felix Ventura has an interesting job – conjuring a new past for people who have a history that does not fit with their aspirations.

Agualusa has a deceptively simple style, and his book is filled with reality testing images and tangled histories. We learn much about the characters from a gecko living in the crevices of Ventura’s apartment. But even this shape-shifting narrator seems to have identity issues and has ‘other’ lives as a human – maybe even being an alter ego of Ventura.

I enjoyed the elegance of the writing and the twists and bends in and out of reality. It reads as thoughts and ideas rather than a plotted novel, and is necessarily odd. Despite the simplicity and brevity of the content, it demands a reread to review.

Recommended. ( )