Thanks for all of the helpful details, JFJS.
Great post, JFJS. Please keep posting haha
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'll try to answer to all of you in order! Yesterday I meant do write a bigger post and add some more names, but I was very sleep deprived and had only a couple of hours to rest before I went to work! I could't resist to share a bit, Daniel's post made me so happy (as all of your positive words regarding my post), I love to see people from around the world interested in Portuguese Literature.
Stevie, thank you for you words! Unfortunately, and maybe I'm wrong, I'm under the impression that Portuguese Literature is not very present in the States literary market. I'm totally biased, but I think that's a pity, we have so many wonderful writers and interesting books! I'm sure a lot of people would like them. Although, from a distant perspective, we suffer the same thing here. I always see the same American authors being published, the same books in the bookstore. I would like to know some new and interesting authors that are worth reading. With the Internet it's easy find new writers, but in the media I mostly see YA, and that sort of stuff, so it gets a bit harder to distinguish what's worth reading. But obviously it's way easier for us to know you, because the power English has nowadays.
The Last Supper with beer is definitly an intriguing idea!
About interesting titles, there's a writer called Ricardo Adolfo that has a books called
"Os Chouriços são Todos Para Assar". Roughly translated it's something like: "The chorizo are all for roasting".
If you ever need any information or help regarding portuguese literature, be my guest. I don't know if there are a lot of Portuguese speaking users here, but I'll be glad if I can help. I've registered in WLF a few years back, and fortunately I've read some of Heteronym post's, he's so much more well read than me, and clearly has a ton of knowledge, but I will help with what I can.
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Daniel, to you also, thank you so much!
I hope you can find a lot of books! But given the exposition Portugal has had in the last couple of years, I believe that some of those authors will be published overseas and marketed strongly. There's a big bet in South America, particularly in Brazil, maybe the rest of the continent in the future. Valter Hugo Mãe is loved in Brazil. Saramago's Nobel was the breakthrough to the brazilian market in a mainstream way, and still remains the Portuguese writer of reference.
And that really is a shame, Saramago was absolutely right when he wrote The Stone Craft. I'm very curious about literature, and I would like be a reader with a wide knowledge in foreign literature, but it's an absolute shame that Portugal and Spain don't have a deeper connection and comunication with South America. Not wanting to enter in politics, I think that in terms of culture, we're closer to South Africa than Europe, and that should be explored. But I don't know if you feel the same, and if the situation is comparable.
For example, here in Portugal, the interest in Brazilian Literature is almost invisible, Machado de Assis, Jorge Amado and that's it for the most part. I follow a lot of Brazilians, and there's so much to discover in their literature, but I can't acess it here. Yesterday I intended to buy
Grande Sertão: Veredas by Guimarães Rosa, and I simply couldn't because it's not published here or it's unavaliable for years. An absolute classic in Brazilian literature, I see so many people praising the book as the definitive Brazilian book, but I can't get it. We share the same language, politics are even butchering it with this new spelling agreement that is suposed to bring us closer, but end's up being just a strategy for economic purposes. Portuguese from Portugal is even translated in Brazil!!
With the African authors it's the same, although being well known, you always find the same. Most people here couldn't name 5. Mia Couto, Ondjaki, Agualusa, Germano Almeida (just won the Camões Prize), Pepetela, and that's probably it. Although we share the language, we're so estranged from eachother. Maybe someday another writer of Portuguese language wins a Nobel Prize, and we'll a universe of proud Portuguese speaking people instead of Brazilian, Portuguese, Angolan, etc...
(
https://reader.wook.pt/?mode=previe...-margarida-de-carvalho/14930644?add-to-cart=1 ) - A small sample of her writing, if you want to check it out. It's in portuguese but maybe you can get a grasp, and see if it interests you!
I thought about highlighting Dulce (Check
"O Retorno") too! And
Alexandra Lucas Coelho (Wonderful journalist, she wrote a book (reportage/travel) called
"Viva o México" (2010) (
https://reader.wook.pt/?mode=previe...-alexandra-lucas-coelho/9856770?add-to-cart=1) about México, among novels and books about other countries. It would be interesting to see what your opinion would be! Also sucessful in fiction.),
Rui Cardoso Martins (also praised by Lobo Antunes) ,
Teolinda Gersão,
Pedro Mexia (Poet, also writes essays and diaries. A very well know intelectual here in Portugal, altough maybe mostly because of the media),
Ricardo Araujo Pereira (Absolute g-e-n-i-u-s!!!!! I cant emphasize how much I love this guy! A great comedian, extremly inteligent, highly sucessful, and has a gigantic culture! The man has read everything, I mean EVERYTHING! Probably the most loved " famous" person in the country! He's the kind of guy who can quote from memory the most obscure poet in a minute, and in the other he's talking about books that have been just published in the USA. He says himself that he spends the days at his home, just reading! He wrote an short essay about humor and how it is a way to cheat death. It has plenty of literary references, from Dickens to poop jokes by Fernando Pessoa.)
In case you come across a writer called Paulo Varela Gomes, check it out. It's not in that list but created a huge deal here in Portugal. He always wanted to write fiction, but sadly found that the he had a terminal cancer and died in 2016 with 63. When he found out he adandoned everythind and focused exclusively to writing, and between 2014 an May of 2016 he published 6 books, that were received with marvelous reviews, and got a bunch of awards. One might get the ideia that being sick may had a part in the sucess, but reading a man who writes against time is too good too pass!
The same to you Daniel, if you want to chat or talk some more about book, it will be my pleasure to do it!
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Ater
Thank you so much! I've been lurking the forum for years, but one can't help not to feel intimidated by the quality of books you all read and the interesting discussions that you have here. I hope to share ideias a lot of ideias here, in a healthy and rich way!
I don't know how insightful you all are in Portuguese Culture and Literature (I have to dig around WLF a bit more to see if I come across posts from you regarding the theme
) but if I can help to do discover new authors it's worth it!
If you find it interesting, I would love to share a few pictures of some of my books! Maybe you'll find something interesting!
I feel the weight of not praticing my English as much as I should, reading is still fine, but the writing part has gotten much worse with time! I guess it's time to get back into reading in english!
