RECENT PORTUGUESE PUBLICATIONS BULLETIN 60

February 2008




PART XIX:
Fiction


See also items 3, 5, 100 & 174.
140. ADEMAR, Carlos. O homem da Carbonária. 2nd ed. Lisbon: Oficina do Livro, 2007. Colecção Romance. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 418 pp., map, bibliography. ISBN: 978-989-555-204-7. $40.00
This historical detective novel, first published 2006, is set in Lisbon in 1926. The Prime Minister's chief of security is found dead in the Jardim da Estrela. He was a member of a secret society called the "Carbonária Portuguesa". The author was born in Vinhais, 1960. He worked for the Polícia Judiciária as a criminal investigator in the Homicide section, joining in the investigations of some of the most sensational crimes which took place in Greater Lisbon, such as those associated with "skinheads" and "O Estripador". His first book, O caso da Rua Direita (2005), a detective novel, was followed by O homem da Carbonária (2006), and the detective novel Estranha forma de Vida (2007).


141. AGUALUSA, José Eduardo. O ano em que Zumbi tomou o rio, romance. 4th ed. Lisbon: Dom Quixote, 2003. Autores de Língua Portuguesa. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 283 pp. ISBN: 972–20–2207–5. $30.00
This novel first appeared in April 2002. José Eduardo Agualusa [Alves da Cunha], a native of Huambo (b. 1960), has resided in Luanda, Rio de Janeiro, and Lisbon, where he was working as a journalist at last report. For thirteen months prior to the appearance of this book he was in Berlin on a literary fellowship provided by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, DAAD. It was during this period that he wrote this book. He has previously published collections of short stories, novels, a novella, and—in collaboration with his fellow journalist Fernando Semedo and photographer Elza Rocha—a work of investigative reporting on the African community of Lisbon, Lisboa Africana (1993), as well as a biographical novel about Lidia do Carmo Ferreira, the Angolan poet and historian who disappeared mysteriously in Luanda in 1992. His novel Nação crioula (1997), about a secret love between the Portuguese adventurer Carlos Fradique Mendes (whose correspondence was collected by Eça de Queiroz), and Ana Olímpia de Caminha, born a slave, who became one of the wealthiest and most powerful people in Angola, was awarded the Grande Prémio Literário RTP. His books have been translated into several European languages. See Manuela R.M. Augusto in Biblos, I, 84-5.


142. ARNAUT, António. Rio de sombras, romance. Coimbra: Coimbra Editora, 2007.8°, orig. illus. wrps. 375 pp. ISBN: 972-32-1533-5. $45.00
This novel is the author's fifth volume of fiction. He has published eight volumes of poetry, two others which combine poetry and prose, as well as sixteen volumes of essays on diverse subjects, from the national health service to literary history and criticism to law. A number of his books have had more than one edition. A supporter of Humberto Delgado for President of Portugal in 1958, he was a co-founder of the Portuguese Socialist Party, and deputy to the constitutional assembly which produced the 1976 constitution, giving up political activity in 1983. On the lawyer, poet, author of fiction, essayist, and former political activist António [Duarte] Arnaut, Born in Cumiera, Penela, 1936, see Dicionário cronológico de autores portuguese, VI, 367-8.


143. BARBOSA, Miguel. O grito de silêncio ferido. Lisbon: Vega, 2007. Colecção O Chão da Palavra, Nova Série. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 115 pp. ISBN: 978-972-699-883-9. $28.00
The novella occupies pp. 9-99. Pages 101-15 consist of a biography and bibliography of the author. This multi-faceted dramatist, novelist, poet, and painter (born Lisbon, 1925), was awarded the Grand Prize for Poetry "Moulin de l'Ecluse," 1993, Carnac, France. His writings have been translated into English, French, and Italian. See Dicionário cronológico de autores portugueses, V, 390-3.


144. BOTELHO, Abel [Acácio de Almeida, 1855-1917]. Fatal dilema (Pathologia Social). Introductory note by José Carlos Pinto dos Santos. Baguim do Monte: Lello Editores, 2007. Colecção Obras de Referência. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 363 pp., (2 ll.). ISBN: 978-972-48-1858-0. $40.00
Originally published 1907; this is the fourth of five novels published between 1891 and 1910 which make up the series Pathologia Social. On the novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, academician and diplomat Abel Botelho, see Etelvina Santos in Machado, ed., Dicionário de literatura portuguesa, pp. 67-9; also Maria Saraiva de Jesus in Biblos, I, 721-4.


145. COSTA, Joel. O assassino de Salazar. 2nd ed. Lisbon: Casa das Letras, 2007. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 414 pp., (1 l., 1 l. advt.). ISBN: 978-972-46-1749-7. $40.00
First published October 2007, this second edition appeared later the same month. The author's Balada para Sérgio Varella Cid was published in 2006. His comedy Isto é a gente a falar was performed in 2003 by the theater group Intervalo.


146. FERRAZ, Carlos Vale, pseud. [i.e. Carlos Matos Gomes]. Fala-me de Africa. 2nd ed. Lisbon: Casa das Letras, 2007. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 425 pp. ISBN: 978-972-46-1738-1. $40.00
First published November 2007, this second edition appeared in December. It is based on the author's screenplay for the television series "Regresso a Sizalinda". Born in Vila Nova da Barquinha, 1946, he was an army officer serving in the colonial wars in Angola, Moçambique and Guiné with special troops of Commandos. He has written several interesting and varied works of fiction, including a volume of detective fiction based on the difficulties of adjusting to civilian life of ex–Commandos of the Portuguese army, Os lobos não usam coleira (1990; 2nd ed., 1995), Nó cego (1983; later edition, with introduction by Rui de Azevedo Teixeira, 1995), about an officer in the Portuguese Commandos during the colonial wars, and Soldadó (1996), a novella about a soldier sent to Africa during the colonial wars. His O livro das maravilhas: anais dos tristes acontecimentos do milénio (1999), is a mystic novel set in Europe of the first millennium, but with references to later persons and events, up to the present and even into the future. Carlos Matos Gomes has also written and co-authored several works of non-fiction about the colonial wars. His Os lobos não usam coleira was adapted for the cinema by António-Pedro de Vasconcelos with the title "Os imortais". He wrote the screenplay for the film "Portugal S.A." directed by Ruy Guerra, and collaborated with Maria de Medeiros on the screenplay for the film "Capitães de Abril".


147. mãe, valter hugo. O remorso de baltazar serapião. 2nd ed. Matosinhos: Quidnovi, 2007. Quidnovi Literatura Portuguesa. Lge. 8°, publ. bds. with d.j. 174 pp. ISBN: 972-8998-96-7. $30.00
First published in 2006; awarded the Prémio José Saramago, 2007, by the Fundação Círculo de Leitores. Novella set in the middle ages, with all its brutality and misery, poetically recreating archaic language. Born in Henrique de Carvalho, Angola in 1971, the author was awarded the Prémio Revelação de Poesia Almeida Garrett for 1999, by the Associação dos Jornalistas e Homens de Letras do Porto for his book egon schiele auto-retrato de dupla encarnação. A dramatist and contributor to various literary reviews, he worked at the Centro de Estudos Regianos. The author has published at least 9 volumes of poetry, and edited several important anthologies. Along with Jorge Reis-Sá, he has been responsible for Quasi Edições. His first book of fiction, O nosso reino (2004), billed on the publisher's "belt" as "uma revelação no romance português", was selected by the Diário de notícias as one of the best Portuguese "romances" of 2004.


148. MELO, Jorge Neto de, pseud. [i.e. Helder José Cabrita Simões Neto]. O evangelho da savana, romance. Lisbon: Editores Associados, 2007. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 277 pp., (1 l.). ISBN: 978-972-8011-51-2. $35.00
Anti-war novel set in the colonial war and post-colonial civil war in Angola. The author (born 1951), became affiliated with the Movimento de Escritores Novos (MEN) in 1983, collaborating in the collections Madrigada 3 (1983) and 4 (1984). He also participated in the Antologia nacional da Minerva (1990), and the VII antologia de poesia contemporânea, edited by Luís Filipe Soares. In 1990 his work appeared in another Antologia da Minerva, as well as in an anthology of tributes by Portuguese poets to Garcia Lorca. His A cor do silêncio was published in 2001 (two editions), and in 2005 his Pomar de pó e de mar was published by the Câmara Municipal de Albufeira.


149. MESTRE, Joaquim. A imperfeição do amor. Lisbon: Oficina do Livro, 2007. Colecção Romance. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 189 pp. ISBN: 978-989-555-313-6. $28.00
Novella set in the vila of Mazouco, Galiza, where one night a star visits the tavern of Xosé Regueiro, leading to the birth of his son, Quico Regueiro. The author was born in Trindade, concelho de Beja. He wrote a volume of short stories, O livro do esquecimento (2000), and a novel, A cega da casa do Boiro (2001). At the time the present novel appeared, he was director of the reviews Rodapé and Pé de página, living in the Alentejo, and employed at the director of the Biblioteca Municipal de Beja.


150. MESTRE, Joaquim. O perfumista. Lisbon: Oficina do Livro, 2006. Colecção Romance. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 301 pp. ISBN: 978-989-555-217-3. $38.00
Surrealistic novel set in the Alentejo in the aftermath of World War I.


151. OLIVEIRA, Francisco da Costa. Anjo negro. Lisbon: Oficina do Livro, 2007. Colecção Romance. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 246 pp. ISBN: 989-555-262-7. $30.00
A terrorist cell suceeds in infiltrating Buckingham Palace and the House of Lords. According to the publisher, "A paixão e a sede de justiça de uma mulher não conhecem limites" and "O universo de John Le Carré e Ian Fleming num romance intenso e emotivo!" Appears to be the second work of fiction by this author, who was born in Lisbon, 1969. He has practiced law, and published a number of juridical volumes. In 2005 he published a brief novel, or novella, Alto risco, apparently his first book of fiction.


152. PACHECO, Fernando Assis. Walt, ou o frio e o quente, noveleta. Introductory note by Abel Barros Baptista. Lisbon: Assírio & Alvim, 2007. Obras de Fernando Assis Pacheco, 4. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 95, (1) pp., frontisport. of author. ISBN: 978-972-37-1216-2. $25.00
Pacheco was born in Coimbra in 1937, and died in Lisbon in 1995. He published his first volume of poetry, Cuidar dos vivos, in 1963; in 1991 a collected volume of poetry appeared, complete as of that date. Trabalhos e paixões de Benito Prada (1993; 5th ed., 1996), a novel set in Coimbra in 1949, when General Franco was to receive an honorary degree, in which Benito Prado, the protagonist, is a Gallego from Casdemundo, was the author's first and only only full length work of fiction. This novella appears to be his only other published work of fiction; it originally appeared in 1978.


153. REAL, Miguel. O último minuto na vida de S. Matosinhos: Quidnovi, 2007. Colecção Literatura Portuguesa. 8°, publ. bds. with d.j. 125, (1) pp. ISBN: 972-8998-80-6. $28.00
According to the publisher's blurb, the present novella is a love story of a beautiful, cultured, divorced Scandinavian woman who arrives in Lisbon in the 1960s when Portugal was supposedly the most backward country in Europe, and a married Portuguese Prime Minister. Both die in an airplane explosion on their way to Porto. Miguel Real's historical novel O último negreiro (2006), tells the story of Francisco Felix de Sousa, called the greatest Portuguese slave trader, who lived in Bahia and Benim from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century, building an empire of land, ships, and men. Father of more than 100 offspring, Sousa continued to trade in slaves even after the slave trade was abolished. His historical novel A voz da terra (2005; 2nd ed. 2005), awarded the prémio Fernando Namora, 2006, was about the Marquês de Pombal and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. The author's novel A visão de Túndalo por Eça de Queirós (2000) was awarded the Prémio Literário Ler by the Fundação Círculo de Leitores. He was previously awarded the Prémio de Revelação APE / IPLB, Ensaio Literário / 1995. Born in Lisbon in 1953, Miguel Real has published a number of works of literary history and criticism, as well as secondary school literary manuals, and a novel in which Plato, near death, confesses to having invented Socrates, using an honored old slave as his model. He has written for the theater in collaboration with Filomena Oliveira. He also wrote Memórias de Branca Dias (2003), a novel based on the legendary Branca Dias, a matriarch of sixteenth-century Pernambuco, one of the first female plantation owners in Brazil.


154. SARAMAGO, José. Obras de José Saramago. 3 vols. Porto: Lello & Irmão, 1991. 8°, publ. leatherette. Portrait, 1306; 1247; 1394 pp., (1 l.). ISBN: none. 3 vols. $250.00
Compact edition on "papel biblia." Vol. I contains poetry: Os poemas possíveis, Provavelmente alegria, and O ano de 1993; theater: A noite, Que farei com este livro?, A segunda vida de Francisco de Assis; and chronicles: Deste mundo e do outro, A bagagem do viajante, As opiniões que o DL teve, and Os apontamentos. Vol. II consists of travels: Viagem a Portugal; short stories: Objecto quase and O ouvido; and novels: Manual de pintura e caligrafia and Levantado do chão. Vol. III has four additional novels: Memorial do convento, O ano da morte de Ricardo Reis, A jangada de pedra and História do cerco de Lisboa.


155. SOARES, Luís. Em silêncio, amor. Lisbon: Oficina do Livro, 2007. Colecção Romance. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 219, (1) pp. ISBN: 978-989-555-316-7. $28.00
The author was born in Lisbon in 1972. This is his third novel (and third book?). It is the story of love and loss of a man whose life involves books, music, painting and film. Thomas Wartet, the author of children's books, decides to abandon writing and the cosmopolitan life following the death of his wife. He offers a copy of Alice in Wonderland to a girl whom he sees every day entering the bookshop in front of his home, and recovers the will to write. Aquariofilia, the author's first novel, was published in 2003. His second novel, Os adultos (2005), deals with an online romance between a teacher and his student.


156. TAVARES, Miguel Sousa. Rio das flores. 3rd ed. Lisbon: Oficina do Livro, 2007. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 629 pp. ISBN: 978-989-555-318-1. $60.00
The third edition of this novel set in Seville, the Alentejo, and Brazil between 1915 and 1945, which appeared in November 2007, is said to have had a print run of 25,000 copies. The first two editions appeared only shortly earlier. The author, a native of Porto, abandoned the law for journalism, entering quickly thereafter into a literary career. He has written three travel books, a story for children, and a volume of short stories. His first novel, Equador (2003; many subsequent editions), went quickly to the top of the Portuguese bestseller lists, and has also enjoyed critical success. Set in São Tomé, it had an initial printing of 30,000 copies in the Spring of 2003, in a country where novels usually have initial printings of between 1,000 and 3,000 copies. The 12th edition had a print run of 10,000 copies.


157. VASCONCELOS, Pedro. 1613. 2nd ed. Lisbon: Oficina do Livro, 2006. Colecção Romance. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 265 pp., map, footnotes, bibliography. ISBN: 978-989-555-153-3. $30.00
First published 2005. Historical novel. On 27 January 1613 a Dutch fleet attacked the fortress of Solor. D. Manuel Álvares was accused before a court in Goa of having surrendered the fortress and fled. The author was born in Lisbon, 1961. He has lived in Paris, Belgrad, Timor, and Zaire. This is his first novel.


158. VASCONCELOS, Pedro. 1617: Shalom, Molan. Lisbon: Oficina do Livro, 2007. Colecção Romance. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 290 pp. ISBN: 978-989-555-303-7. $30.00
Sequel to the author's previous historical novel, 1613, set in the Portuguese "Estado da Índia". This is his second novel, and apparently his second book.


159. VIEIRA, Alice, João Aguiar, José Fanha, et al. O Código d'Avintes. 6th ed. Lisbon: Oficina do Livro, 2006. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 252 pp. ISBN: 989-555-215-7. $35.00
The other authors of this collaboratively written novel, which appears to be a parody of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, are José Jorge Letria, Luísa Beltrão, Mário Zambujal and Rosa Lobato de Faria. There is a brief introduction by José Fanha, titled "O prazer de escrever a catorze mãos". Everything begins with a sinister Conclave of the Teutonic Knights of the New Order, who seek to dominate the world by whatever means. Isaías Pires, teaching physician expelled from the Order for unorthodox practices, belongs to another organization opposed to the Conclave. According to a publisher's blurb on the front cover, "O mistério da infância de Jesus Cristo acaba por ser revelado nas margens do Douro". First published 2006; 25,000 copies are said to have been sold.


160. VIEIRA, Alice, João Aguiar, José Fanha, et al. Eça agora. Preface by Rosa Lobato de Faria. Lisbon: Oficina do Livro, 2007. Colecção Romance. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 312 pp. ISBN: 978-989-555-322-8. $38.00
Parody of Eça de Queiroz. Vieira has written two of the chapters; Aguiar has two chapters and the epilogue to his credit; Fanha has also written two chapters. In addition there are two chapters each written by José Jorge Letria, Luísa Beltrão, Mário Zambujal, and Rosa Lobato Faria. The subtitle on the front cover, which does not appear on the title page, reads "Os herdeiros de Os Maias". The publisher's belt reads "A reinvenção das personagens de Eça de Queiroz numa história alucinante dos autores de O Código d'Avintes."


161. VIEIRA, Alice, João Aguiar, José Fanha, et al. Os novos mistérios de Sintra. Introduction by José Fanha. Lisbon: Oficina do Livro, 2005. Colecção Romance. 8°, orig. illus. wrps. 248 pp. ISBN: 989-555-115-0. $30.00
Seven authors combine to create a new novel. In addition to the three mentioned above, the other four are José Jorge Letria, Luísa Beltrão, Mário Zambujal, and Rosa Lobato de Faria.