Diaries – Literarische Agentur https://mertinwitt-litag.de MertinWitt Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:22:45 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 Abelardo Castillo https://mertinwitt-litag.de/portfolio-items/abelardo-castillo/ Mon, 19 Oct 2020 13:45:32 +0000 https://mertinwitt-litag.de/?post_type=avada_portfolio&p=14569

Casa de las Américas PrizeAbelardo Castillo

(1935-2017)
Argentina

Abelardo Castillo was born in Buenos Aires in 1935 and grew up in San Pedro, close to the capital. He worked as a journalist and co-founded and directed the renowned magazines El escarabajo de Oro and El ornitorrinco. Castillo is a brilliant author of novels, short stories, theatrical plays and essays. Among many other prizes, he was awarded the Casa de las Américas Prize in 1961, the International Prize of Contemporary Authors from UNESCO in 1964, the Esteban Echeverría National Prize in 1993, the Platinum Konex Award in 1994, the Diamond Konex Award in 2014 in recognition of his body of work, and the Carlos Fuentes Prize in 2016. He is considered one of the most important authors of Argentina and Latin America.

Abelardo Castillo© Alejandro Guyot

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He Who Is Thirsty

He Who Is Thirsty (“El que tiene sed”) is a beautiful and painful novel that tells of a world bordering on madness: alcoholism, its hell and a breathtaking metaphysical adventure. How to satisfy the impossible, how to fight against the inexhaustible thirst that does not recognize origin, how to realize that life itself is the realization that happiness does not exist. These are the questions that torture Esteban Espósito, an alcoholic writer, in his lucid and drunken perception of reality. With lyricism and crudeness, the author manages to investigate the extremes of human degradation, the daily guilt, the humiliation and the outbursts of fate that push to the very limits of authenticity. The masterly prose of Abelardo Castillo transforms the experience into a true work of art where language acquires all the splendour of the shudder.

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Chronicle of an Initiate

Esteban Espósito, a young writer with an alcohol problem and a penchant for theological inquiry, arrives in the city of Córdoba for a literary symposium he could not care less about. The city is as mythical as it is real, a place where time seems to behave in an inexplicable way, and where Esteban will spend thirty-six decisive hours of his life. October 1962. The imminence of war due to the missile crisis. This is the backdrop to Chronicle of an Initiate (“Crónica de un iniciado”). The love of Esteban and Graciela, the unforgettable figure of Santiago, the Rabelesian apparitions of Father Cherubini and the demonic professor Urba, the traps of benzedrine and sex, the mystery of a city founded cabalistically, make up an exciting surface plot under which lies the real one: Esposito’s journey of initiation that will connect him with other existential searches, with delirium, with the problem of time, with the meaning of life and death, recreating Faust’s pact with the devil for the sake of our arts.

Castillo manages the threads of uncertainty and gives us a monumental novel whose centre is an encrypted knowledge: “there is a secret order, the devil told me”, the protagonist of this chronicle confesses. Is Esteban going to sign the Pact? Does he even have a choice? In the tradition of Goethe and Thomas Mann, of Arlt and Marechal, the metaphysical depth and perfect architecture of “Crónica de un iniciado” simply dazzle.

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Chronicle of an Initiate

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The Gospel According to Van Hutten

The Gospel According to Van Hutten (“El Evangelio según Van Hutten”) is a bold and captivating revisionist reconstruction of the origins of the Christian era: conspiracies, detective intrigue and fantastical erudition.

How far are the gospels riddled with false claims, and how much important information about the Dead Sea scrolls has been censored? Were the Essenes a secret community split off from Orthodox Judaism, as well as the forerunners of Christianity and educators of Jesus Christ? Was Christ a mere saboteur of doctrines, rather than the son of God? During a vacation in La Cumbrecita, a middle-aged history professor discovers that the controversial archaeologist Estanislao Van Hutten, presumed dead, lives hidden from his detractors with a secret that could shake the most deeply rooted religious beliefs. The revelations made to the historian about the Holy Scriptures are based on the discovery of the ancient Dead Sea scrolls that call into question the official version of the figure of the Messiah.

Abelardo Castillo offers the reader the adventure of decoding a large palimpsest, while enjoying the escalating intrigue. An intelligent novel, original and solidly constructed upon the revelation of a truth: that to be does not need proof.

Quotes

The Gospel According to Van Hutten

RIGHTS

NOVELS
The Gospel According to Van Hutten (“El Evangelio según Van Hutten”)
Buenos Aires: Seix Barral 1999, 2004, 2019, 228 p.
Greece: Kastaniotis 2005 · Italy: Crocetti 2002

Chronicle of an Initiate (“Crónica de un iniciado”)
Buenos Aires: Emecé 1991, Seix Barral 2000, 2019, 357 p.

He Who Is Thirsty (“El que tiene sed”)
Buenos Aires: Emecé 1985, Seix Barral 1994, 2019, 253 p.
Greece: Exandas 2002

NOUVELLE
The House of Ash (“La casa de ceniza“)
Buenos Aires: Estuario 1967, 1977, Seix Barral 2001, 2019, 134 p.

SHORT STORIES
Las maquinarias de la noche
Buenos Aires: Seix Barral 2022, 176 p.

About the World We Knew. Personal Anthology
(“Del mundo que conocimos. Antología personal”)
Buenos Aires: Alfaguara 2016, 200 p.

The Trembling Mirror (”El espejo que tiembla“)
Buenos Aires: Seix Barral 2005, 2022, 128 p.

Antología pessoal
Buenos Aires: Instituto Movilizador de Fondos Cooperativos 1999, 124 p.

Complete Stories (”Cuentos completos“)
Buenos Aires: Alfaguara 1997, 2012, 496 p.

Las Maquinarias de la Noche
Buenos Aires: Emecé 1992, Planeta 2004, 176 p.

Las Panteras y el Templo
Buenos Aires: Ed. Sudamericana 1976, Planeta 2003, Seix Barral 2019, 157 p.

The Real Worlds (“Los mundos reales“)
Santiago de Chile: Editorial Universitaria de Chile 1972, 223 p.
Italy: Del Vecchio 1997, 2015, 261 p.

Cruel Tales (”Cuentos crueles“)
Buenos Aires: Editorial Jorge Alvarez 1966, Emecé 1994, Seix Barral 2000, 125 p.
Italy: Del Vecchio 2024

The Other Doors (”Las otras puertas“)
Buenos Aires: Goyanarte 1961, Emecé 1993, Seix Barral 1999, 2019 , 174 p.
Cuba: Casa de las Américas 1961

PLAYS
Teatro reunido
Buenos Aires: Seix Barral (Planeta) 2023, 232 p.

Teatro completo
Buenos Aires: Emecé 1995, 298 p.

Tres dramas
Ed. Stilcograf 1968

Israfel
Buenos Aires: Ed. Losada 1964, Seix Barral 2001, 137 p.

The Other Judas (”El otro Judas“)
Buenos Aires: Editorial El escarabajo de oro 1961, Seix Barral 2011, 136 p.

ESSAYS
Ensayos reunidos (“Las palabras y los días”, “Desconsideraciones”)
Buenos Aires: Seix Barral 2023

Desconsiderations (”Desconsideraciones“)
Buenos Aires: Seix Barral 2010, 256 p.

Being a Writer (”Ser escritor“)
Buenos Aires: Ed. Perfil 1997, Seix Barral 2007, 2020, 224 p.

Las palabras y los dias
Buenos Aires: Emecé 1988, 1999, 207 p.

DIARIES
Diaries – Volume II (”Diarios – Tomo II“) (1992-2006)
Buenos Aires: Alfaguara 2019, 656 p.

Diaries – Volume I (”Diarios – Tomo I“) (1959-1991)
Buenos Aires: Alfaguara 2014, 647 p.

INTERVIEWS
El Oficio de metir
(12 interviews, by María Fasce)
Buenos Aires: Emecé 1998

]]> Gonçalo M. Tavares https://mertinwitt-litag.de/portfolio-items/goncalo-m-tavares/ Thu, 29 Oct 2020 18:53:16 +0000 https://mertinwitt-litag.de/?post_type=avada_portfolio&p=15250

Portugal’s third most translated authorGonçalo M. Tavares

Portugal

Gonçalo M. Tavares was born in Luanda in 1970 and teaches Theory of Science in Lisbon. Nobel Laureate José Saramago stated: »In thirty years’ time, if not before, Tavares will win the Nobel Prize, and I’m sure my prediction will come true… Tavares has no right to be writing so well at the age of 35. One feels like punching him.«Tavares has surprised his readers with the variety of books he has published since 2001 and has been awarded an impressive amount of national and international literary prizes in a very short time. In 2005 he won the José Saramago Prize for young writers under 35. In his speech at the award ceremony, Saramago commented: JERUSALÉM is a great book, and truly deserves a place among the great works of Western literature. JERUSALÉM was also awarded the Prêmio Portugal Telecom de Literatura em Língua Portuguesa 2007 and the LER/Millenium Prize. His novel LEARNING TO PRAY IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGY has received the prestigious Prize of the Best Foreign Book 2010 in France. This award has so far been given to authors like Salman Rushdie, Elias Canetti, Robert Musil, Orhan Pamuk, John Updike, Philip Roth, Gabriel García Márquez and Colm Tóibín. LEARNING TO PRAY was also shortlisted for the renowned French literary awards Femina Étranger Prize and Médicis Prize and won the Special Price of the Jury of the Grand Prix Littéraire du Web Cultura 2010. In 2011, Tavares received the renowned Grande Prêmio da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores, as well as the prestigious Prémio Literário Fernando Namora 2011. The author was also nominated for the renowned Dutch Europese Literatuurprijs 2013 and was on the Longlist of the Best Translated Book Award Fiction 2013. He was also nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin award 2013 and, most recently, for the Prix Jean-Monnet de Littérature Européenne 2015. MATTEO LOST HIS JOB is among the five shortlisted authors for the prestigious Prix Femina 2016 foreign fiction. According to the Portuguese Book Institute DGLAB, Gonçalo M. Tavares is the third most translated Portuguese author, after Fernando Pessoa and Eça de Queiroz, with 226 publications worldwide. Gonçalo M. Tavares has been awarded the 2026 Formentor Prize for Literature, considered a prelude to the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Gonçalo M. Tavares’ rights have been sold in 70 countries.

Gonçalo M. Tavares© Joana Caiano

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Quotes

About the Author

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The End of the United States of America. An Epic

In The End of the United States of America. An Epic (“O Fim dos Estados Unidos da América. Epopeia”), in the middle of an American football game, a terrible plague enters the United States of America. In the midst of this is Bloom, the hero of the epic, who, like Oedipus, will meet a terrible fate but will try to save America from falling apart. Bloom gets into his car to travel across the United States in search of a solution, but also looking for his love, the Mexican La Rosa.

The two political leaders, Ted Trash, right-wing extremist and Left Wing, communist and left-wing extremist, instead of pacifying the country, fight for its separation. At a certain point, it becomes clear that the Plague only affects the poor. In some states, they are placed in ghettos. Different states adopt opposing laws. There is a division between Marxist-extremists and fascists. Tensions escalate until they lead to the Second Civil War. The country is divided in two, Homo Pobrus and Homo Ricus, genetically separated, becoming two distinct species incapable of reproducing with each other. The poor die at an average age of forty-two, while the rich live to one hundred and thirty. Bloom is rich, La Rosa is poor.

Bloom, who thought he was a natural-born American, was actually adopted by an American couple living in New York. When he receives an oracle saying that he will save America but also kill his father and mother, Bloom decides to distance himself from the parents he believes to be his real ones. What happens is that, on his journey across America to try to find the plague, he accidentally kills his real father in a car accident and sleeps with his real mother, without knowing it, at a hippie camp. Bloom finally finds La Rosa, the woman he met at the beginning of the epic. The two stay together. And La Rosa becomes pregnant. This means that the two have once again made the genes of the poor and the rich compatible.

Ted Trash and Left Wing each lead their own army, dividing the country in two. But Bloom, without realising it, saves America not from the plague but from the genetic division. It is as if Bloom and La Rosa were the new Adam and Eve, recreating a single human species.

Quotes

The End of the United States of America. An Epic

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Mussolini’s Boots

A prose sonorously thought out and designed to be read in a hushed voice, as Gonçalo M. Tavares defines it, this is the book Mussolini’s Boots (“As Botas de Mussolini”). It is the beginning of a Fragmented History of the World (“História Fragmentada do Mundo”), which starts by analysing news from the 21st century and the memory of historical characters and facts. Its pages include Robespierre, one of the exponents of the French Revolution; Turing, a genius of detail and numbers; the hand of Hitler as a young painter and the biography of his niece, Geli Raubal, with whom the dictator is said to have fallen in love; the great fire in Tokyo in 1923 and the voice of Emperor Hirohito of Japan when, over the radio, he decreed his country’s surrender; the tragedy of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright and the follies of the juggler Joseph L. Greenstein, who wandered around the world. Greenstein, who wandered the American fairs of the 20th century; the turbulent life of Malcolm X; Enrico Fermi’s atomic reactor, linked to the atomic bomb; the high-speed tragedy of Marilyn Monroe; and the imposing finger of Tito, president of Yugoslavia; the day the Berlin Wall was erected and Nietzsche’s sanatorium; the trial of a Nazi in 2020, already 93 years old; and the high boots of Mussolini, the Italian dictator. These are flashes, small fragments, notes.

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Short Notes on the Orient

Bashô tells a short story of his many journeys. He is leaving for the city of Maruoka and his great friend, Hokushi, who is from Kanazawa, thought he would only accompany him for a short distance – “but ended up travelling all the way to Maruoka, unable to say goodbye”. So we have a friend who endlessly says goodbye to the other, travelling all the way on a journey that is not his own. And then I imagine the continuation of this story. Now it would be Bashô’s friend Hokushi who would have to leave for his home, and Bashô would go with him, just a few metres, just to say goodbye, but he wouldn’t be able to let go of him and would go with him all the way back to Kanazawa. Imagine a farewell like this, uninterrupted, between two humans. Two humans who could spend a lifetime saying goodbye to each other like this, with such ceremony and delicacy.

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Dictionary of Artists

This Dictionary of Artists (“Dicionário de Artistas”), this Museum, starts from a detail, a tiny fragment, or the very central core of an artist’s work, and from there the text moves somewhere else. In the way that an animal that is hungry leaves its nest to go to a place where it senses food, thus the text starts its journey. But there is nothing didactic or explanatory about it, the texts in this Dictionary are autonomous beings that go out into the streets free and completely alone after midnight.

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The Middle Bone

The Middle Bone (“O Osso do Meio”) forms part of the universe of The Kingdom (“O Reino”), next in the series following Klaus Klump: A Man (“Um homem: Klaus Klump“), Joseph Walser’s Machine (“A Máquina de Joseph Walser”), Jerusalem, and Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology (“Aprender a rezar na Era da Técnica”). Perhaps a tone, books with tones (colours, aggression, speed) rather than literary genres. A tone such as this: how does evil, excitement, passivity and violence flow through the many soils of the earth? Taking place in a post-war period, in a movement of collective hangover. It is a book where the middle is there, right at the beginning, and there it remains until the end. Three men and a woman caught up in a point of their violent, (almost) happy lives. Happiness has many variations and some are not at all benign. Kahnnak, Albert Mulder, Maria Llurbai, Vassliss Rania: three men and a woman. A harsh and sad book.

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Plague Diary

Tavares has been writing a daily column for the renowned Portuguese newspaper Expresso tracking the COVID-19 pandemic, entitled Plague Diary (“Diário da Peste”). The first entry in Englishtranslation by Daniel Hahn went online at Words Without Borders. Several texts have been published at: Granta, Bookanista, PEN Transmissions, Asymptote, Politics/Letters, Onomatomania, The Massachusetts Reviews, Scroll, The White Review, and TLS. A chronological survey and access to the English translations can be found here: > danielhahn.co.uk. Plague Diary is also available in Argentina, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Greece, India, Italy, The Netherlands, Peru, and Venezuela.

First book rights have been sold in Greece, Spain and for Romanian language.

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Plague Diary

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In America, Said Jonathan

In America, Said Jonathan (“Na América, Disse Jonathan”) is a book that relates a trip through the United States of America. During this trip, the protagonist writes a diary that follows his real and imaginary adventures. It is a ­ ctional diary. The author brings a portrait of Kafka to the United States of America and puts it in various places throughout the country, including the supermarket shelves of 7-Eleven convenience stores. Kafka’s portrait seems to disturb a country the size of the United States of America. As if Kafka‘s face were asking uncomfortable questions of this great country.

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Mythologies

Mythologies (“Mitologias”), is one of the most important literary universes of Gonçalo M. Tavares. This world – which is now beginning to be published – blends men, machines, animals, and objects in a 21st Century mythology that can be read in any order of entry. It is a return to the traditional Once Upon a Time format set in a mythical time, which mixes dates and exchanges narrative orders in a space without geographic location. There is a suspension of normal physical laws, a different logic, other narrative conventions, in a zone of freedom that deals with evil, human temptations and their disorders and fears. Five children go through this world and just want what everyone wants: to survive as they grow.

Quotes

Mythologies

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The Devil

The Devil (“O Diabo”) is the story of the Devil who sits wellbehaved at the table but who is quickly led astray by children. Mythologies is a universe of fiction by Gonçalo M. Tavares, the result of a five-year creative process, a unique work of great literary richness and brilliance, using the narrative tradition of orality and fantasy, in which the author places humankind and history in a mythological dimension that he distorts, to show and explore more fully what is human nature. It is a return to ‘Once Upon a Time’ set in a mythical time, mixing dates and swapping narrative orders, in a space without geographical location.

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Five Children, Five Rats

In the middle of the forest, five children lost. Or four. Because the youngest of the sisters got lost from those who were already lost. The children find a man-with-the-evil-eye, but he‘s good. They also encounter Speed, which is a dangerous element that makes men mad. There is a Train that does not like humans and a man who cannot stop gawping at the world. There is a tiny church where a body can barely fit, but this body has room to pray. And there are those who come out cured of very small spaces. In Five Children, Five Rats (“Cinco Meninos, Cinco Ratos”) we are in a mythological narrative, and machines and animals have since long ceased to be mere helpers or friends. There are very hungry machines.

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The Woman-Without-a-Head and the Man-With-the-Evil-Eye

In The Woman-Without-a-Head and the Man-With-the-Evil-Eye (“A Mulher Sem-Cabeça e o Homem-do-Mau-Olhado”), Gonçalo M. Tavares repositions mankind and history within a mythological dimension, which he distorts in order to clarify, and through which, using the narrative universe of orality and fantasy, he brilliantly explores the essence of human nature. A woman’s head is beaten off, but she can still walk upright. A man with an evil eye cannot look at his bride. Five children of the king are devoured by a machine. A famous neurologist wants to give a poor madman a smile. And a group of downtrodden wretches builds a flying machine to flee before the revolution. If Kafka had rewritten Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”, this book would have been the result.

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Encyclopaedia // Short Notes on Literature-Bloom

The effort to distinguish various forms of knowledge production has been a constant occupation of Tavares; in particular distinguishing independent science from literature, the main theme of the last part of Encyclopaedia (“Encyclopédia”), entitled Short Notes on Literature-Bloom (“Breves Notas sobre a Literatura-Bloom”). Science, according to Tavares, is focussed on all that can be repeated; literature, on everything that is unrepeatable. Science was created to resolve paradoxes and contradictions; literature, on the contrary, requires “specialists in mystery”. But not mysteries for detectives, Tavares points out, not those mysteries that end with the discovery of the murderer: to study mystery means increasing, not decreasing it, so that at the end of Literature-Bloom the reader knows less facts than he did before. This paradoxical logic, this wild arithmetic, is one of the central issues of Tavares poetic and literary language: to domestication, it counters with estrangement; to the desire to control, the ethics of dispossession.

(Borja Bagunyà)

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His Excellency, The Circumlucologist

His Excellency, The Circumlucologist (“O Torcicologologista, Excelência”) is a work of fiction: ironic and capable of making one burst out in laughter, but also a painful book, composed of two very different parts. The first, wherein disenchantment intersects with corrosive humor, is composed of fictional dialogues between two characters, the Excellencies, created and developed over a few years by Gonçalo M. Tavares in the pages of a newspaper. Your Excellency speaks to Your Excellency, and–in the middle of the absurdity that is existence and the attempt to understand it–the two discourse on good and evil, revolutions, boredom, dance and laziness, big questions and minor mishaps, leaps forward and major downfalls. Continuous irony, humor, and sabotage of thought and language progress in the dialogue between these two curious Excellencies, characters of impeccable manners and a quick, comical wit.

The second part of O Torcicologologista, Excelência takes the reader to commotion of the city, to the small gestures and great tragedies that there reside. An accelerated tragedy in which an abrupt zoom into and quick glance at humanity brings a collective character to the foreground: the city, the modern city, with its illnesses, its obsessions, and, sometimes, its hopes.

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A Girl is Lost in Her Century, Looking for Her Father

A Girl is Lost in Her Century, Looking for Her Father (“Uma Menina Está Perdida no seu Século à Procura do Pai”) tells the story of Hanna, a 12-year-old girl with Down’s syndrome. Together with Marius, a man who seems to be hiding from something, she embarks on a journey through cities haunted by traces of World War II. Once more, Tavares takes his readers to a dismal world that poses existential questions.

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A Girl is Lost in Her Century Looking for Her Father

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Old People Want to Live Too

The Greek myth of the tragedy Alceste, by the playwright Euripides, is revived in Old People Want to Live Too (“Os Velhos Também Querem Viver”). In this novel-poem, Gonçalo M. Tavares stages the drama in contemporary Sarajevo and discusses issues such as death, love, sacrifice, the value of thousands of lives, and the value of just one.

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Old People Want to Live Too

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Atlas of the Body and the Imagination

Atlas of the Body and the Imagination (“Atlas do corpo e da imaginação”) is a multilayered essay that revolves around literature and art, addressing topics like fiction, identity, technology and desire. With a firm hand and lucid spirit, Tavares guides us around the labyrinthine world we live in, revisiting the work of some of the most important contemporary thinkers, among them Wittgenstein, Hannah Arendt and Nietzsche.

Please find here the trailer of the Portuguese edition: > Atlas do corpo e da imaginação Booktrailer

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A Voyage to India

Gonçalo M. Tavares’ novel A Voyage to India (“Uma Viagem à Índia”) is a mental journey as well as a physical one. Written in easily accessible language, which stands in stark contrast to its epic form inspired by The Lusiads, A Voyage to India relates the experiences Bloom has on his way to India and back.

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A Voyage to India

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The Neighbourhood

The Neighbourhood (“O Bairro”) describes a utopian neighbourhood whose characters share the names of great artists and writers, almost a literary version of Asterix’s village.

From an impressive list of works published in swift succession which surprise readers by their philosophical mind quizzes, diffidently and ironically told events and broad stylistic variations, choice is made here of a number in which the main protagonist is a “Senhor”: Mr Valéry and Logic (”O Senhor Valéry e a Lógica“) embraces 25 short, playfully-philosophical stories about Mr. Valéry, who is short but tries hard to adapt to his surroundings, more or less successfully. With apparent childlike naivety he upsets the rules of logic and reason. For example, he jumps up and down in order to be as tall as his fellow men, declaring: I am as tall as tall people, only for a shorter while.

Mr Henri and the Encyclopaedia (”O Senhor Henri e a Enciclopédia“), a close relative of Mr. Valéry’s, is a bit more egocentric and conceited and likes to dabble in paradoxical matters and linguistic games, besides being very partial to absinthe. Mister Henri says … it’s true that if a man mixes absinthe with reality it makes for a better reality … yet it’s also the case that if a man mixes absinthe with reality it makes for a worse reality …

Mr Swedenborg and the Geometrical Investigations (”O Senhor Swedenborg e as Investigações Geométricas“), the latest resident in the writer’s quarter, is based on a Swedish scientist, theologian and mystic who, in the eighteenth century, wrote a large amount of fiction in Latin. Tavares’ Swedenborg uses the lectures that his colleagues and the people living in his neighbourhood give, to help him think through and carry out his geometric research. His reflections on memory, the mirror, seduction, desire, death and dozens of other things, are acute observations on life, always from a geometric and logical perspective and written in the familiar and jocular tone of the Senhores.

And other gentlemen, neighbours in a fictional writers´quarter, are introduced in book form such as Mr. Brecht, Mr. Juarroz, Mr. Calvino, Mr. Walser, Mr. Kraus and Mr. Eliot.

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The Neighbourhood

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The Kingdom

In a series which the author calls The Kingdom (“O Reino”), Tavares has published four novels which – this time in a less playful manner – address the topic of the essence of human existence.

Just like Walser’s dark notebooks, Gonçalo M. Tavares’ Black Books continue to give their version of the world we live in, […] of individual conscience, and the fragility of a human being in the play of existential forces, and the indifference or alienation of the individual. Joseph Walser’s Machine (“A Máquina de Joseph Walser”), following Klaus Klump: A Man (“Um Homem: Klaus Klump”), is constructed as an attempt at apprehending the essence of humanity, drawing on material with the soul of a frighteningly rational world.

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The Kingdom

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Jerusalém

In Jerusalém Ernst Spengler finds himself alone in the night of the 29th of May. He is about to throw himself out of the window. Suddenly the phone rings. Change of scene: The thirty-year-old Mylia is in her apartment and suffering great pain. She is terminally ill. She leaves the flat to go to a church. Ever since the war ended, Hinnerek Obst can not go out into the street without fear. For his eerie guise he is taken to be a murderer. He too is roaming the streets this night. Theodor Busbeck, doctor, historian and ex-husband of Mylia likewise leaves his apartment at 3 am in the morning in search of a prostitute. Mylia had one day turned up at his surgery and said I am schizophrenically mad. Would you like to cure me? The two had married. Later, however, Theodor left his wife in a psychiatric clinic. For years he had worked on developing a mathematical formula to foresee future crimes in the history of mankind.

In a clear and objective language, this book tells a strange and disconcerting story. It seems as though a secret force is leading the individual characters to their encounter in this particular night. A world coined by violence, fear, pain and insanity is evoked. The author succeeds in combining an exceedingly attention-grabbing story full of surprising contemplations on human nature with the diverse mechanisms of the exertion of power.

Jerusalém has been selected for the Portuguese edition of “1001 books to read before dying – a chronological guide to the most important novels of all times”. The novel appears alongside works by Philip Roth and John Banville.

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Jerusalém

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Matteo Lost His Job

In his novel Matteo Lost His Job (“Matteo Perdeu o Emprego”), Tavares explores the course of his protagonist’s destiny. Matteo answers an advertisement for a job and the woman who interviews him has a peculiar characteristic: she has no arms. His duty will be to accompany her and do everything that she cannot do. He takes the job because it is the first offer he’s received in several months, but he doesn’t like it and leaves it. He spends a few more months unemployed until he responds to a new ad. The man he meets has no arms.

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Matteo Lost His Job

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Stories by Mister Valéry

In The Shoes. Stories by Mister Valéry (“Os Sapatos. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”) Mr. Valéry walks in the street with a white shoe on his left foot and a black shoe on his right foot. Sometimes it’s the other way around. But he is never wrong. He gets irritated when people tell him that he has mixed up his shoes. He then switches his shoes, but receives the same reaction. He gets even more irritated. According to his logic, one of these two situations has to be right for the other to be wrong, since they are inverse. He decides he is indifferent to the subject, because if they say both situations are wrong, it is because they are both right. In this unusual work for children, Gonçalo M. Tavares explores the limits of logic and philosophical principles in a creative and entertaining way.

For Mr. Valéry, holidays are the times when no one can require you to make decisions. The difficult thing is to find the ideal house where he can rest. In an attempt to discover the best place, in The Holiday House. Stories by Mister Valéry (“A Casa de Férias. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”) Mr. Valéry imagines different houses, which by their specific but always unusual structure can offer him the rest he deserves. However, his imagination does not stop working and surprises us with ever more incredible propositions, revealing his extraordinary power.

In The Friends. Stories by Mister Valéry (“Os Amigos. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”), Mr. Valéry is small but jumps a lot, so he explains that he is “like tall people but only for a short time.” But “if tall people jumped, he would never reach them vertically” and, persistent in his learning, he abandons the exercise and begins new experiments: first a bench, then a bench with wheels, even thinking about how to “freeze a jump”. “When concentrating, Mr Valéry could actually see the tops of the heads of people who were much taller than him,” but with the vision from above “he had difficulty remembering the faces of the people he met. “With height, Mr. Valéry lost friends.”So finally he decides to be tall only in his head.

In The Two Sides. Stories by Mister Valéry (“Os Dois Lados. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”), Mr Valéry has a problem to solve: how to always be on the right side of the world? Mr Valéry’s dilemma calls for rules, and his steps in seeking this knowledge show us the absurdity of a mental system, touching us in our awareness of the absurdities that we all, at some point, raise.

Developing the theory that the world has two sides, “the right and the left,” Mr Valéry implements a disciplined and rigorous methodology: he divides his house into two parts and “only touches the things that were on his left with the left hand and the things on his right hand with his right hand”. Furthermore, in order never to deceive himself in rigorously always using the “right” hand, even when lying on his back, he painted “the whole left side of the house, including every object, in blue” and the other side in red. But so as to make no mistake, Mr. Valéry had another great trick: his left hand was also painted blue and his right hand red.

AWARDS

INTERNATIONAL AWARDS
Formentor Prize for Literature 2026 (Spain)
Prix Laure Bataillon 2021 (France, French translation of The Neighbourhood)
Bellas Artes Prize for the Best Translation MARGARITA MICHELENA 2019 (Mexico, with A Girl is Lost in Her Century Looking for Her Father)
University of Lisbon Prize 2019 (for his body of work)
Prémio Roménia – Literatura Sem Fronteiras 2018 (for his body of work)
Vergílio Ferreira Prize 2017 (Portugal)
Prémio Tabula Rasa 2015 (Portugal, with A Girl Is Lost in Her Century Looking for Her Father)
Radoje Tatić Translation Award 2014 (Croatia, with Histórias falsas)
Prix Littéraire Européen 2011, Étudiants Francophones (France, with Mr Kraus and Politics)
Special Price of the Jury of the Grand Prix Littéraire du Web Cultura 2010 (France)
Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger 2010 (France); This award has already been given to authors like Salmon Rushdie, Elias Canetti, Robert Musil, Orhan Pamuk, John Updike, Philip Roth, Gabriel García Márquez and Colm Tóibín, among others.
Belgrad Poetry Award 2009 (Serbia)
International Prize of Triest 2008 (Italy)
Prêmio Portugal Telecom 2007 (Brazil)

AWARDS FOR HIS NOVEL JERUSALÉM
Prêmio Portugal Telecom de Literatura em Língua Portuguesa 2007
Prêmio José Saramago 2005
Prêmio LER/Millennium BCP 2004

AWARDS FOR ÁGUA, CÃO, CAVALO, CABEÇA
Grande Prêmio de Conto da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores “Camilo Castelo Branco” 2007

AWARDS FOR A VOYAGE TO INDIA
Prémio Fundação Inês de Castro 2012
Prémio Literário Fernando Namora 2011
Grande Prêmio Romance e Novela da Associação Portuguesa de Autores 2011
Prémio Portugal Telecom de Literatura 2011
Prêmio Especial de Imprensa Melhor Livro 2010 Ler/Booktailors
SPA Author’s Prize 2010

NOMINATED FOR
Prix Jean Monnet de Littérature Européenne (2019, with A Girl Is Lost in Her Century Looking for Her Father)
Shortlisted for the Prémio Oceanos (2016, with A Girl Is Lost in Her Century Looking for Her Father)
Prix Femina (2016, France, with Matteo Lost His Job)
Pen Award for Novel, Portuguese Pen Club (2015, A Girl Is Lost in Her Century Looking for Her Father)
Prix Jean-Monnet de Littérature Européenne (2015, France, with Klaus Klump: A Man and Joseph Walser’s Machine)
International IMPAC Dublin award (2013, Ireland, with Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology)
Longlist of the Best Translated Book Award Fiction (2013, USA, with Joseph Walser’s Machine)
Europese Literatuurprijs (2013, Netherlands, with Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology)
Prix Médicis Étranger (2012, France, with A Voyage to India)
Prix Médicis Étranger (2010, France, with Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology)
Prix Femina (2010, France, with Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology)
Prix Cévennes (2009, France, with Jerusalém, award for the Best European Novel)

RIGHTS

NOVELS
The End of the United States of America. An Epic (”O Fim dos Estados Unidos da América. Epopeia“)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2025, 1002 p.
Egypt: Masr El Arab · France: VH Editions (Viviane Hamy) · Poland: Wydawnictwo Literackie

The Middle Bone (”O Osso do Meio“)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2020, 132 p.
Egypt: Masr El Arab 2021 ·  France: Viviane Hamy 2024 · USA: Dalkey Archive Press

A Girl Is Lost in Her Century, Looking for Her Father (”Uma Menina Está Perdida no seu Século à Procura do Pai“)
Porto: Porto Editora 2014, 200 p.
Argentina: Letranómada 2015 · Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2015 · France: Viviane Hamy 2018 · Lebanon: Dar al Rafidain · Mexico: Almadía 2018 · Poland: Wydawnictwo Literackie 2022 · Spain: Seix Barral 2016 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2022 · USA: Dalkey Archive Press 2025

Old People Want to Live Too (“Os Velhos Também Querem Viver”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2014, 96 p.
Brazil: Foz 2015 · Canada: Guernica Editions · Iraq: Layeth Alhjan Hamad· Peru: Animal de Invierno

A Voyage to India (”Uma Viagem à Índia“)
Lisbon: Caminho 2010, 484 p.
Voted among the Best Books of the Year 2014 by El País and ABC Cultural
Argentina: Letranómada 2014 · Brazil: Leya 2010 · Bulgaria: Colibri 2016 · Catalan: Periscopi 2013 · Croatia: Vukovic & Runjic 2018 · France: Viviane Hamy 2012, 2022 · Mexico: Almadía · Romania: Univers 2014 · Spain: Seix Barral 2014, 5th edition 2018, 6th ed. 2019 · USA: Dalkey Archive 2016

Matteo Lost His Job (”Matteo Perdeu o Emprego“)
Porto: Porto Editora 2010, 210 p.
Brazil: Foz 2013 · Bulgaria: Ergo Publishing House 2021 · France: Viviane Hamy 2016 · Italy: Nottetempo 2016 · Kuwait: Alsurra 2019 · Peru: Animal de Invierno 2018 · Spain: Seix Barral 2023 · Sweden: Tranan 2018

Tetralogy “The Kingdom” (“O Reino”)
Learning to Pray in the Age of Technology (“Aprender a Rezar na Era da Técnica”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2007, 383 p.; Relógio d’Água 2021, 363 p. 
Argentina: Letranómada 2013 · Armenia: New Mag ·  Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2008 · Bulgaria: Five Plus · Colombia: Uniandes · Egypt: Masr El-Arabia 2019 · France: Viviane Hamy 2010 · Hungary: L’ Harmattan 2013 · India: Falcon Books · Italy: Feltrinelli 2011 · Macedonia: Dooel · Mexico: Almadía 2013 · Poland: Wydawnictwa Literackie 2015 · Romania: Vivaldi 2011 · Serbia: Treci Trg · Slovenia: Modrijan 2009 · Spain: Mondadori 2012, Seix Barral 2018 · The Netherlands: Querido 2012 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2017 · USA: Dalkey Archive Press 2011

Jerusalém
Lisbon: Círculo de Leitores 2004; Caminho 2005, 251 p.
Albania: Fjala 2016 · Argentina: Letranómada 2010 · Armenia: Vernatun Pubslihing· Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2006, pb 2017 · Bulgaria: Five Plus 2009 · Catalan: El Gall 2018 · Colombia: Uniandes · Croatia: Sysprint 2009 · Czech Republic: Studio Rubato 2025 · Denmark: Aurora Boreal 2021 · Egypt: Masr El-Arabi 2016 · Estonia: Ilmamaa 2014 · France: Viviane Hamy 2008, pb 2012 · Galician: Rinoceronte 2024 · Germany: DVA 2012 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2012 · Hungary: Nagyvilág 2008 · Iceland: Una útgáfuhús 2023 · Israel: Kinneret 2009 · Italy: Guanda 2006 (avail.) · Japan: Kawade Shobo 2021 · Korea: Open Books 2011 · Latvia: Janis Roze 2024 · Lithuania: Lithuanian Writer’s Union · Macedonia: Blesok 2013 · Mexico: Almadía 2009 · Poland: Swiat 2010 · Romania: Humanitas 2008 · Serbia/Montenegro: Treći Trg 2009 · Slovenia: Modrijan Zalozba 2008 · Spain: Mondadori 2009, Seix Barral 2018 · Sri Lanka: GoodReads ·  Sweden: Lusima 2009 · The Netherlands: Querido 2011 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2012 · USA: Dalkey Archive Press 2009

Klaus Klump: A Man (“Um Homem: Klaus Klump“)
Lisbon: Caminho 2003, 2004, 2008 (Machine + Klaus Klump), 136 p.; Círculo de Leitores 2006
Shortlisted for the Prix Jean-Monnet de Littérature Européenne 2015
Voted among the Best Books of the Year 2014 by the English literary magazine Gorse
Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2007 · Bulgaria: Five Plus 2010 · Colombia: Uniandes 2017 · Croatia: Vukovic & Runjic (Machine + Klaus Klump) 2017 · Egypt: Masr El Arabia · France: Viviane Hamy 2014 (Machine + Klaus Klump) · Indonesia: Yayasan Pustaka Obor 2019 · Romania: Paralela45 2018 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 (Machine + Klaus Klump) · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute · Spain: Mondadori 2006, Seix Barral 2018 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi (Machine + Klaus Klump) 2016 · USA: Dalkey Archive 2014

Joseph Walser’s Machine (“A Máquina de Joseph Walser”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2003, 2004, 2008 (Machine + Klaus Klump), 168 p.; Círculo de Leitores 2006
Shortlisted for the Prix Jean-Monnet de Littérature Européenne 2015
Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2010 · Bulgaria: Five Plus 2011 · Colombia: Uniandes 2017 · Croatia: Vukovic & Runjic (Machine + Klaus Klump) 2017 · Egypt: Masr El Arabia · France: Viviane Hamy 2014 (Machine + Klaus Klump) · Germany: DVA 2014 · Paraguay: Ediciones de la Ura · Romania: Paralela45 2018 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 (Machine + Klaus Klump) · Spain: Mondadori 2007, Seix Barral 2018 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi (Machine + Klaus Klump) 2016 · USA: Dalkey Archive 2012

O Bairro (The Neighbourhood):
Voted among the Best Books of the Year 2014 in Argentina

Mr Valéry and Logic (“O Senhor Valéry e a Lógica”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2002, 80 p.
Prix Laure Bataillon 2021 for the best book translated in France
Argentina: Interzona · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Escritos 2004, Casa da Palavra 2011, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · China: Shanghai 99 2016 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Czech Republic: SMRST 2011 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2008, 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2020 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · India: Transbooks 2005 (English for India only) · Italy: Guanda 2005, Nottetempo 2014, Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books · Kuwait: Alsurra 2018 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Morocco: Racines 2011 · Poland: Bertelsmann Media 2007 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria; Liberty Books, forthcoming 2026 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2017 · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Mondadori 2006, Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Sweden: Tranan 2012 · Switzerland: La Joie de Lire 2003 (French) · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2014 · USA: Texas Tech University Press 2012

Mr Henri and the Encyclopaedia (“O Senhor Henri e a Enciclopédia”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2003, 95 p.
Argentina: Interzona 2012 · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Escritos 2004, Casa da Palavra 2011, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · China: Shanghai 99 2016 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2020 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · India: Transbooks 2005 (English for India only) · Italy: Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books 2015 · Kuwait: Alsurra 2018 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Poland: Bertelsmann Media 2007 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2017 · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Mondadori 2007, Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2014 · USA: Texas Tech University Press 2012

Mr Brecht and Success (“O Senhor Brecht e o Sucesso”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2004, 100 p.
Argentina: Interzona 2012 ·  Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2005, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · China: Shanghai 99 2016 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016, H & H (Creole)  · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Czech Republic: SMRST 2012 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2010, 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2020 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · India: Transbooks 2006 (English for India only) · Italy: Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books 2015 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Poland: Bertelsmann Media 2007 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria; Liberty Books, forthcoming 2026 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018 · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Mondadori 2007, Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Sweden: Tranan 2012 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2014

Mr Juarroz and Thought (”O Senhor Juarroz e o Pensamento“)
Lisbon: Caminho 2004, 88 p.
Argentina: Interzona 2012 ·  Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2006, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2020 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · India: Transbooks 2007 (English for India only) · Italy: Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books 2015 · Kuwait: Alsurra 2018 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Poland: Bertelsmann Media 2007 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria; Liberty Books, forthcoming 2026 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2017 · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Sweden: Tranan 2012 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2014 · USA: Texas Tech University Press 2012

Mr Calvin and the Promenade (“O Senhor Calvino e o Passeio”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2005, 71 p.
Argentina: Interzona · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2006, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · China: Shanghai 99 2016 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2009, 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2022 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · India: Transbooks 2007 (English for India only) · Italy: Guanda 2007, Nottetempo 2014, Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books · Kuwait: Alsurra 2018 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Poland: Bertelsmann Media 2007 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria; Liberty Books, forthcoming 2026 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018 · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Sweden: Tranan 2012 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2014 · USA: Texas Tech University Press 2012

Mr Kraus and Politics (“O Senhor Kraus e a Política”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2005, 116 p.
Argentina: Interzona · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2006, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Czech Republic: SMRST 2012 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2009, 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2021 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · India: Transbooks 2008 (English for India only) · Italy: Nottetempo 2014, Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books · Kuwait: Alsurra 2018 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Poland: Bertelsmann Media 2007 · Romania: Allfa · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018  · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · USA: Texas Tech University Press 2012 · Venezuela: Madera Fina

Mr Walser and the Forest (“O Senhor Walser e a Floresta”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2006, 48 p.
Argentina: Interzona · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2008, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Croatia: Sysprint 2008 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2011, 2020 · Germany: Korrespondenzen 2023 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · Italy: Nottetempo 2014, Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books · Kuwait: Alsurra 2018 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria; Liberty Books, forthcoming 2026 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018 · Slovenia: Beletrina 2008 · Spain: Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Turkey: Kirmizi Kedi 2014 · USA: Texas Tech University Press 2012 · Venezuela: Madera Fina

Mr Breton and the Interview (“O Senhor Breton e a Entrevista”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2008, 56 p.
Argentina: Interzona · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2009, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2008, 2020 · German: Korrespondenzen 2024 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · Italy: Urogallo 2023 · Korea: Open Books · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Romania: Allfa · Russia: Alexandria · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018 · Spain: Témenos (Catalan), Seix Baral 2015; 2019; 2022 · Venezuela: Madera Fina

Mr Swedenborg and the Geometrical Investigations (“O Senhor Swedenborg e as investigações geométricas”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2009, 111 p.
Argentina: Interzona 2012 · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2011, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2014, 2022 · German: Korrespondenzen 2025 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · Italy: Noi Edizioni ·  Korea: Open Books 2015 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Romania: Allfa · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018 · Spain: Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Sweden: Tranan 2012 · Venezuela: Madera Fina

Mr Eliot and the Conferences (“O Senhor Eliot e as Conferências”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2010, 74 p.
Argentina: Interzona 2012 · Belgium: Orfeu · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2011, Editora Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Books 2020 · Costa Rica: Editorial Costa Rica 2016 · Dominican Republic: UME · France: Viviane Hamy 2015 · German: Korrespondenzen 2026 · Greece: Kastaniotis 2016 · Guatemala: Catafixia · Italy: Noi Edizioni · Korea: Open Books 2015 · Macedonia: Begemot 2020 · Mexico: Almadía 2012 · Romania: Allfa · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Slovakia: Portugalsky Institute 2018 · Spain: Seix Baral 2015, 2019, 2022 · Sweden: Tranan 2012 · Venezuela: Madera Fina

Fragmented History of the World (“História Fragmentada do Mundo”)
Mussolini’s Boots (“As Botas de Mussolini”)
Lisbon: Relógio D’Água 2023, 72 p.
Spain: Editorial Difácil

DIARY-FICTION (DIÁRIO FICÇÃO)
In America, Said Jonathan (“Na América, Disse Jonathan”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2019, 112 p.
Egypt: Masr El Arabia (worldwide) · Germany: Kupido Literaturverlag 2021 

MYTHOLOGIES (MITOLOGIAS)
The Devil (”O Diabo“)
Lisbon: Bertrand 2022, 200 p.
Brazil: Dublinense 2025 · Egypt: Masr El Arabia (worldwide) · Peru: La Gran Sinergia

Five Children, Five Rats (”Cinco Meninos, Cinco Ratos“)
Lisbon: Bertand 2018, 228 p.
Brazil: Dublinense, 2019 · Egypt: Masr El Arabia (worldwide) · France: Viviane Hamy 2022

The Woman-Without-a-Head and the Man-With-the-Evil-Eye (”A Mulher Sem Cabeça e o Homem do Mau-Olhado“)
Lisbon: Bertrand 2017, 152 p.
Extract published at Granta, UK
Brazil: Dublinense 2019 · Egypt: Masr El-Arabia 2018 · France: Viviane Hamy 2022

DIARY
Plague Diary (“Diário da Peste”)
Lisbon: Relógio D’Água 2021, 312 p.
Complete English translation available
Argentina: Interzona 2020 · Brasil: Nós · Bulgaria: Ergo Publishing 2022 · Canada/USA: Quattro Books · France: Bouquins 2022· Greece: Kastaniotis 2021 · Italy: Noi · Moldova (Romanian): Cartier 2022 ·  Spain: Días Contados (only in Spain) 2022

DIALOGUE FICTION
His Excellency, The Circumlucologist (“O Torcicologologista, Excelência”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2015, 304 p.
Brazil: Dublinense 2017

ESSAYS
The Stone and the Drawing (“A Pedra e o Desenho”)
Lisbon: Relogio D´Agua 2022, 80 p.
Spain: La Umbría y la Solana

Atlas of the Body and the Imagination (“Atlas do Corpo e da Imaginação”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2013, 533 p.
Italy: Nova Delphi · Mexico: Matadero 2018 · Brazil: Dublinense 2021

ENCICLOPÉDIA (ESSAY-FICTION)

Short Notes on the Orient (“Breves Notas Sobre o Oriente”)
Lisbon: Relógio D’Água 2023, 104 p.

Dictionary of Artists (“Dicionário de Artistas”)
Lisbon: Relógio D’Água 2021, 136 p.
Brazil: Dublinense 2023 · Spain: La Umbría y la Solana

Short Notes on Literature-Bloom (“Breves Notas sobre a Literatura-Bloom”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2016, 96 p.
Argentina: Letranómada · Chile: Puntángeles · Costa Rica: Encino · Italy: Urogallo 2023 · Mexico: Matadero 2018 · Poland: Wydawnictwo slowo 2018 · Romania: Scoala Ardeleana · Spain: Xordica · Spain (Catalan): Edicions del Periscopi 2016 · Uruguay: HUM · USA: Quantum Prose 2019

Short Notes on Music (“Breves Notas sobre a Música”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2015, 120 p.
Argentina: Letranómada · Chile: Puntángeles · Costa Rica: Encino · Italy: Urogallo 2023 · Mexico: Matadero 2018 · Poland: Wydawnictwo slowo 2018 · Romania: Scoala Ardeleana · Spain: Xordica · Spain (Catalan): Edicions del Periscopi· Uruguay: HUM· USA: Quantum Prose 2019

Short Notes on Connections (Llansol, Molder, and Zambrano) (“Breves Notas sobre as Ligações (Llansol, Molder e Zambrano)”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2009, 96 p.
Argentina: Letranómada 2010 · Brazil: Design 2009 · Chile: Puntángeles · Costa Rica: Encino · Colombia: Uniandes 2016 · Ecuador: Paradiso · Italy: Urogallo 2023 · Mexico: Aldus 2010 · Peru: Colmena · Poland: Wydawnictwo slowo 2018 · Romania: Scoala Ardeleana · Spain: Regional de Extremadura 2010, Xordica · Uruguay: HUM· USA: Quantum Prose 2019

Short Notes on Fear (“Breves Notas sobre o Medo”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2007, 69 p.
Argentina: Letranómada · Brazil: Design 2009 · Chile: Puntángeles · Colombia: Uniandes 2016 · Costa Rica: Encino · Ecuador: Paradiso · Italy: Urogallo 2023 · Mexico: Aldus 2010 · Peru: Colmena · Poland: Wydawnictwo slowo 2018 · Romania: Scoala Ardeleana · Spain: Regional de Extremadura 2010, Xordica · Uruguay: HUM· USA: Quantum Prose 2019

Short Notes on Science (“Breves Notas sobre a Ciência”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2006, 145 p.
English translation available at asymptotejournal.com
Argentina: Letranómada · Brazil: Design 2009 · Costa Rica: Encino · Colombia: Uniandes 2016 · Ecuador: Paradiso · Italy: Urogallo 2023 · Mexico: Aldus 2010 · Peru: Colmena · Poland: Wydawnictwo slowo 2018 · Romania: Scoala Ardeleana · Spain: Regional de Extremadura 2010, Xordica · Uruguay: HUM· USA: Quantum Prose 2019

BLOOM BOOKS
The Left Leg of Paris Followed by Roland Barthes and Robert Musil (“A Perna Esquerda de Paris Seguido de Roland Barthes e Robert Musil”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’ Água 2004, 166 p.
Brazil: Lumme · Chile: Alquimia

THEATRE
The Man is either Silly or a Woman (“O Homem ou É Tonto ou É Mulher”)
Porto: Campo das Letras 2003, 76 p.
Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2005

Samuel Beckett’s Spoon and other Texts (“A Colher de Samuel Beckett e outros Textos”)
Porto: Campo das Letras 2002, 82 p.
Brazil: Arte & Letra

SONGS (CANÇÕES)
Água, Cão, Cavalo, Cabeça
Lisbon: Caminho 2006, 91 p.
Argentina: Letranómada 2008 · Austria/Germany: Verlag der Apfel 2008 · Italy: Il Filo 2009 · Mexico: Almadía 2009 · Romania: Scoala Ardealeana 2021 (in the anthology “Cântece”) · Spain: Xordica 2010

Mexican Songs (“Canções Mexicanas”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2011, 96 p.
Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2013 · Mexico: Almadía 2013 · Puerto Rico: Trabalis 2016 · Romania: Scoala Ardealeana 2021 (in the anthology “Cântece”)

Animalistic (“Animalescos”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2013, 144 p.
Bolivia: El Cuervo 2021 · Brazil: Dublinense 2015, 2019 · Costa Rico: H&H · Romania: Scoala Ardealeana 2021 (in the anthology “Cântece”) · Spain: Kriller 71

STORIES
False Stories (“Histórias Falsas”)
Lisbon: Campo das Letras 2005, Caminho 2014, 96 p.
Argentina: Letranómada 2008 · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2008 · Catalonia: El Gall 2015· Colombia: El Pelegrino · Cuba: Feria del Libro de la Habana 2014 · Ecuador: Paradiso 2013 · El Salvador: Los Sin Pisto 2022 · Honduras: Mimalapalabra 2022· Italy: Urogallo 2020 · Lebanon: Dar al Rafidain · Mexico: Almadía 2008 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2014 · Spain: Xordica 2008

SHORT PROSE
Bucareste-Budapeste: Budapeste-Bucareste
Lisbon: Relógio D’Água, 2019, 108 p.
Brazil: Oficina Raquel 2022 · Romania: Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă 2024 · Spain: Nordica Libros (Spanish only in Spain) 2022

Short Movies
Lisbon: Caminho 2011, 160 p.
Argentina: Interzona · Brazil: Dublinense 2015

Library (“Biblioteca”)
Porto: Campo das Letras 2004, 190 p.
Argentina: Letranómada 2009 · Brazil: Casa da Palavra 2009 · Spain: Xordica (Spanish only in Spain) 2007

PARTICIPATION IN ANTHOLOGIES
Europe City: Lessons from the European Prize for Urban Public Space
Epilogue by Zygmunt Baumann
Spain: Lars Müller 2015

Best European Fiction 2011
USA: Dalkey Archive Press 2010

POETRY
Geometrical Investigations (“Investigações Geométricas”)
Lisbon: Fundação Ciência e Desenvolvimento 2005, 151 p.

1 (Poetry) (“1 (Poesia)”)
Lisbon: Relógio d’Água 2004
Belgium: Atlas 2003 (anthology) · Brazil: Bertrand 2005 · Italy: Franco Puzzo 2008 · Luxembourg: CLAE/25A 2011 · Serbia: Treci Trg 2011 · Spain: Luces de Galibo 2012

Book of Dance (“Livro da Dança”)
Lisbon: Assírio & Alvim 2001, 137 p.
Argentina: Zindo & Gafuri 2017 · Brazil: Design 2008 · Hungary: Typotex 2019 · Spain: Kriller 71 2015

FOR YOUNG READERS
The Shoes. Stories by Mister Valéry (“Os Sapatos. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2009, 32 p.
Brazil: Realejo · Hungary: Typotex 2019

The Holiday House. Stories by Mister Valéry (“A Casa de Férias. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2008, 32 p.
Brazil: Realejo

The Two Sides. Stories by Mister Valéry (“Os Dois Lados. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2007, 25 p.
Brazil: Realejo

The Friends. Stories by Mister Valéry (“Os Amigos. Histórias do Senhor Valéry”)
Lisbon: Caminho 2007, 25 p.
Brazil: Realejo · Mexico: Ediciones SM 2014 · Panama: Piggy Press · Palestine: Palestina Writing · Spain: Onanda (Catalan)

]]> Miguel Torga https://mertinwitt-litag.de/portfolio-items/miguel-torga/ Thu, 29 Oct 2020 20:07:53 +0000 https://mertinwitt-litag.de/?post_type=avada_portfolio&p=15290

Miguel Torga

(1907 – 1995)
Portugal

Miguel Torga (1907-1995) is regarded as one of Portugal’s most outstanding authors. For many he is also the most important poet since Fernando Pessoa. Born Adolfo Correia da Rocha in 1907 in São Martinho da Anta, a village in Portugal’s poorest region – Trás-os-Montes – his life as the son of a small farmer was not always easy. At the age of thirteen he had to go to Brazil to work on his uncle’s farm. He returned to Portugal at the age of twenty-two and began to study Medicine in Coimbra.

Miguel Torga© Estate of Miguel Torga

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About the Author

Despite his obligations as a writer, he never abandoned his profession as a doctor and always felt closest to the simple people from the region where he was born. He encouraged resistance to dictatorship and fascism not just in theory; he even suffered imprisonment for his convictions. Only seldom did Torga interrupt his secluded life in the university city of Coimbra to make public appearances. He was awarded numerous national and international prizes for his multifaceted and comprehensive oeuvre. He published a total of 40 volumes: novels, short-stories, plays, poetry and diaries. Miguel Torga’s oeuvre exudes the scent of earth, reveals a dominant love for concrete things, and portrays the simple people of northern Portugal, whose mysteries and myth gain entry intothe author’s lyrical and narrative work. Torga’s deliberately archaic style possesses the vividness and originality of the language of the farmers of northern Portugal. In its conciseness, his prose mirrors the ruggedness of their rural homeland.

Represented for Dom Quixote, Portugal.

RIGHTS

Torga’s work is now being published by Publicações Dom Quixote, Lisbon.
Please ask for detailed information concerning the rights sold abroad.

A criação do mundo, 1937-1981, 560 p.

Bichos, 1940, 128 p.

Diários, 1941-1990, 368 p.

Rua, 1942, 191 p.

O senhor Ventura, 1943, 115 p.

Novos contos da montanha, 1944, 327 p.
Selected among 10 of the best books set in Portugal by The Guardian, 2020

Vindima, 1945, 344 p.

Portugal, 1950

Pedras lavradas, 1951, 199 p.

Traço de união, 1956, 159 p.

Contos da montanha, 1962, 227 p.

Poemas ibéricos, 1966, 80 p.

PARTICIPATION IN ANTHOLOGIES
Ah, ein Herz, verstehe. Gedichte von Heilenden und Kranken.
(Ed. Jakob Leiner)
(“Ressurreição”, “Requiem por Mim”, Poesia Completa Vol. I-II, 2007)
Germany: Quintus Verlag 2024

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