My favourite Portuguese author is Jose Saramago. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature, so you may well have heard of him before or even read some of his books, but if you haven’t then I would highly recommend you give him a go.
Saramago’s books come with some warnings though! First, you will quickly realise that he is not a big fan of punctuation. This is not ideal if you are on public transport and can see your stop rapidly approaching because you may be some considerable distance from the next full stop. You will also find that the author steps into the book on a few occasions to provide some comment on how the book is unfolding or about the characters. So don’t expect a “silent” author. Plus Saramago does go through some philosophical musings at times, but just go with it. His books are very good. Be that Blindness, its (sort of) sequel Seeing, The Double or one his others.
Here are five Portuguese novels (although not all by Portuguese authors) to whet your appetite.
Title: Blindness
Author: Jose Saramago
Number of pages: 309
Opening words:
The amber light came on. Two of the cars ahead accelerated before the red light speared. At the pedestrian crossing, the sign of a green man lit up. The people who were waiting began to cross the road, stepping on the white stripes painted on the black surface of the asphalt, there is nothing like a zebra, however, that is what is it called. The motorists kept an impatient foot on the clutch, leaving their cars at the ready, advancing, retreating like nervous horses that can sense the whiplash about to be inflicted. The pedestrians have just finished crossing but the sign allowing the cars to go will be delayed for some seconds, some people maintain that this delay, while apparently so insignificant, has only to be multiplied by the thousand of traffic lights that exist in the city and by the successive changes of their three colours to produce one of the most serious causes of traffic jams or bottlenecks, to use the more current term.
The green light came on at last, the cars moved off briskly, but then it became clear that not all of them were equally quick off the mark. The car at the head of the middle lane had stopped, there must be some mechanical fault, a loose accelerator pedal, a gear lever that has stuck, problem with the suspension, jammed brakes, breakdown in the electrical circuit, unless he has simply run out of gas, it would not be the first time such a thing has happened. The next group of pedestrians to gather at the crossing see the driver of the stationery car wave his hands behind the windshield, while the cars behind him frantically sound their horns. Some drivers have already got out of their cars, prepared to push the stranded vehicle to a spot where it would not hold up traffic, they bat furiously on the closed windows, the man inside turns his head in their direction, first to one side then the other, he is clearly shouting something, to judge by the movement of his mouth he appears to repeating some words, not one word but three, as turns out to be the case when someone finally manages to open the door, I am blind.
What’s it about?
Suddenly, while stopped at a red light in his car, a man goes blind. A "white evil" obliterates his vision plunging him into light as fathomless and impenetrable as the darkest night. A crowd gathers and one man is kind enough to see him home. It is not long, however, before an epidemic of the new blindness causes the government to act in the most authoritarian and fearful of ways, throwing many of the recently disabled into a mental asylum, guarded by scared, trigger-happy soldiers, left to fend for themselves.
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Title: The Tragedy Of The Street Of Flowers
Author: Eca de Queiroz
Number of Pages: 358
Extract:
It was in the Teatro da Trindade, at a performance of Bluebeard.
The second act had already begun, and the chorus of courtesans were just bowing and retreating in an arc to the back of the stage, when, in a box to the left of the circle, the rusty creak of a stiff door lock and the scrape of a chair drew a few distracted glances. A rather tall woman was standing in the box, slowly undoing the silver clasps on a long black silk cape lined with fur; the hood of the cape was still up, but nevertheless afforded an impression of large, dark eyes in an oval, aquiline face; whether natural or artificial, the faint shadows beneath her eyes lent seriousness and profundity to her gaze. With her was a thin woman, wearing a gold watch chain strung across a vulgar silk bodice; the thin woman took her companion's cape from her, and she, with a light, delicate movement, turned and stood very still, studying the stage.
What’s it about?
One night at the theatre, Vitor da Silva, a young law graduate, sees a strikingly beautiful woman. Her name is Genoveva. Originally from Madeira, she has lived for many years in Paris. Her rich French husband has died and she is in Lisbon with a view possibly to settling there. Genoveva, however, is not what she seems. Behind the mutual attraction between her and Vitor lies a terrible secret.
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Title: The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon
Author: Richard Zimler
Number of Pages: 464
Extract:
When I was eight, in the Christian year of fourteen ninety‐four, I read about the sacred ibises who helped Moses cross an Ethiopian swamp riddled with snakes. I drew a scythe‐beaked creature in scarlet and black with my Uncle Abraham’s dyes and inks. He held it up for inspection. “Silver eyes?” he questioned.
“Reflecting Moses, how could they be any other color.”
Uncle kissed my brow. “From this day on, you will be my apprentice. I will help you change thorns to roses, and I swear to protect you from the dangers which dance along the way. The pages that are doors will open to our touch.” How could I have known that I would one day fail him so completely? Imagine being outside time. That the past and future are revolving around you, and you cannot place yourself properly. That your body, your receptacle, has been numbed free of history. Because I feel this way, I can see clearly when and where the evil started: four days ago, on the twenty‐second of Nisan, in our Judiaria Pequena, the Little Jewish Quarter of the Alfama District of Lisbon.
What’s it about?
The year is 1506, and the streets of Lisbon are seething with fear and suspicion when Abraham Zarco is found dead, a naked girl at his side. Abraham was a renowned kabbalist, a practitioner of the arcane mysteries of the Jewish tradition at a time when the Jews of Portugal were forced to convert to Christianity. Berekiah, a talented young manuscript illuminator, investigates his uncle's murder, and discovers in the kabbalah clues that lead him into the labyrinth of secrets in which the Jews sought to hide from their persecutors.
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Title: Adam Runaway
Author: Peter Prince
Number of pages: 480
Excerpt:
Gomes woke at exactly ten minutes before dawn, just as he always did. His first action, also his daily habit, was to drive from his bed the girl who had shared it with him in the night. There was always a girl -- without her presence, whoever she might be, Gomes found it difficult to sleep. Last night he had used the new one, Doroteia, a skinny wench who thought she was aged thirteen or fourteen, she wasn't sure, who had arrived in the city from the Trás-os-Montes a couple of weeks ago. Gomes -- whose duties as head clerk in the firm of Hanaway's also encompassed the supervision of the household -- preferred to hire new serving girls from that or another part of the kingdom distant from Lisbon. This pretty much removed from the realm of possibility the danger that he would be visited by irate masculine relatives, demanding satisfaction or reparation for the loss of their daughter's or sister's innocence.
What’s it about?
It is 1721 and young Adam Hanaway, devastated by his father's sudden death, leaves England to seek his fortune in Lisbon, where his uncle is a successful merchant. But almost nothing turns out as Adam planned. His family's welcome is cool, and Adam's rise is thwarted by his uncle's treacherous clerk and also by a certain personal trait. He's not a coward exactly, but he is inclined to boldly put himself in dangerous situations and then at the last minute run away -- hence the nickname.
Adam certainly has a lot to learn. The Inquisition grips Portugal, and those who befriend Adam may not be well intentioned. His mother and sisters wait for him to rescue them from poverty, but he is distracted by a number of local beauties. Then he commits a social faux pas so severe he forever ruins his chances for making a good match. Swept up in a struggle that will require him to come into his manhood -- the struggle between wickedness and humanity -- it seems Adam will never find his way to success, to love, or to peace with the life fate has given him.
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Title: The Book of Disquiet
Author: Fernando Pessoa
Number of pages: 272
Excerpt:
1
Sometimes I think I will never leave Rua dos Douradores. Once written down, that seems to me like eternity.
What’s it about?
Sitting at his desk, Bernardo Soares imagined himself free forever of Rua dos Douradores, of his boss Vasques, of Moreira the book-keeper, of all the other employees, the errand boy, the post boy, even the cat. But if he left them all tomorrow and discarded the suit of clothes he wears, what else would he do? Because he would have to do something. And what suit would he wear? Because he would have to wear another suit.
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