Equator has had a lot of success in Portugal; therefore I don't have a lot of interest in reading it. Good as people say it is I don't like following trends. Furthermore, I'm committed to not supporting the book's publisher, which publishes the worst Portuguese fiction nowadays (outside of Paulo Coelho).
It's an historical romance, set in S. Tomé island in the glory days of the empire: it has love, political conspiracies, backstabbing. I think lovers of the genre should enjoy it.
A final note: Miguel Sousa Tavares is the son of a superb poet, the late
Sophia de Mello Breyner. I wish she were the one being translated instead.