I met Jei-Jei on a grey morning that I had dedicated to visiting the Museum of the Revolution. I was getting ready to look at the exhibits on the first floor, where the resistance to colonialism is described, when I heard the sound of a protest demonstration in the Garden of 28 May, across the street. I had already noticed it on arrival, a small gathering of Magermanes, the emigrant workers who had served in the old socialist Germany and now, long returned, were still claiming a part of their wages which they said was being withheld by the government. They were waving placards and flags, and for a moment it seemed that the festive days of our own socialism were returning. At one point I heard two bangs and I went down to the entrance of the museum to see what was happening outside.

City of Mirrors (“Cidade dos Espelhos”) is a futuristic novella telling the story of the three adolescents Caia, Jeremias and Laissone, who deepen the chaos of a city already ruled by fear and destruction with a biochemical attack. When they are separated on the run, each of them has to cope with it in his own way. Will they make it, or will they fall into the hands of the authoritarian regime?

In Transit Camp (“Campo de Trânsito”), J. Mungau is arrested at dawn in an unnamed city on any given day, in any given year, and transferred to a transit camp. There he awaits his final transferral and hopes to find out the reason for his detention. On what does his fate depend? Is it decided beforehand by a higher authority, or can his behaviour influence his luck? As he waits, he carefully observes the relationships and power mechanisms governing this small world. Eventually, a murder places the entire power structure in doubt and Mungau realises no concepts are more subjective than justice and liberty. Borges Coelho creates a singular world full of unknowns and free from explicit violence, in which he reflects on power, its function and its victims. With subtle, poetic language, the author manages to unsettle the reader, always in search of answers.