Portuguese books.

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sfuqua
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Portuguese books.

Postby sfuqua » Sat Jan 29, 2022 2:56 am

It always seems to me that Portuguese doesn't get as much credit as it deserves. It is a huge language spread across the world. Perhaps it gets overlooked because Portugal is a small country in Europe. But then there is Brazil... And Africa...
Anyway, there must be more Portuguese writers to follow than José Saramago and Paulo Coelho. There are a ton of books translated into Portuguese, but are there thrillers written in Portuguese? Trash romance novels? Maybe I'm not searching very well...
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Re: Portuguese books.

Postby reineke » Sat Jan 29, 2022 4:35 am

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Re: Portuguese books.

Postby zenmonkey » Sat Jan 29, 2022 7:57 am

Anything by Antonio Tabucchi. I read him in French. Then went back to Portuguese. Recommended.
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Re: Portuguese books.

Postby BeaP » Sat Jan 29, 2022 10:01 am

I think it's a general problem, not specific to Portuguese. Most people wouldn't be able to recommend you 5 contemporary German or Italian authors either. What gets relatively widely known is low quality popular fiction and trendy high-brow literature. I find it really annoying that valuable works remain hidden and often don't even get translations. I'm talking about good crime novels or mysteries as well, not just literature. People know what is advertised, and it takes a lot of effort and time to dig out the gems on the waste dump. I always recommend searching on goodreads with this method: You choose a novel you like, and filter the reviews to those written in Portuguese. You click on the profile of those people whose review you agree with, and look at their favourite books. People writing reviews in Portuguese will most probably have Portuguese books on their shelves. It can be time-consuming, but reading reviews in Portuguese has some usefulness. During my searches I've found one Portuguese writer I'm interested in, Afonso Cruz. But I'm not focusing on Portuguese at all, it was just by chance.
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Re: Portuguese books.

Postby iguanamon » Sat Jan 29, 2022 2:50 pm

Yes there are good contemporary authors from all over the Lusophone world. Some of my favorite authors from Brazil are Rubem Fonseca, Marçal Aquino, Carina Rissi, Tatiana Salem Levy, and Jorge Amado.

From Moçambique, I'm a huge fan of Mia Couto. His book, "A Varanda do Frangipani" was the first novel I read in Portuguese. He is also an accomplished poet. If you're a fan of Gabo, you'll find Mia Couto somewhat reminiscent of him. From Angola, I like José Eduardo Agualusa. From Cabo Verde, I'm a fan of Germano Almeida. I loved his novel "O Testamento do Senhor Napumoceno da Silva Araújo"

Rubem Fonseca wrote several crime/detective novels camparable to Dashiel Hammett. I am especially fond of his character "Mandrake" which was turned into an HBO Brasil mini-series.


Carina Rissi is one of my favorite Brazilian writers. She writes in the "Chick-Lit" genre. Her novels are chock full of contemporary colloquial Braizilian speech. The plots are entertaining, fun, funny and engaging. She is very popular and successful in Brazil.

On a more serious level, Tatiana Salem Levy, is the daughter of Turkish Jews, born in Lisboa, Portugal and an immigrant to Brazil. She checks all my boxes as a daughter of Ladino-speakers and a Brazilian. I highly recommend her work.

Jorge Amado is an amazing Brazilian writer from Bahia in the unique Northeast region of Brasil. His writing is spiced with vocabulário nordestino to make it even more interesting. I've read some of his novels, my favorites are Gabriela, cravo e canela, A Descoberta da América pelos Turcos, Tieta do Agreste. Jorge Amado is a master storyteller. His novels are a window on the Northeast. Many of his works were made into films and TV novelas. I've read the book "Tieta do Agreste". I have the novela on DVD and will watch it at some point.

There is much, much more to Lusophone literature than Saramago and Coelho.
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Re: Portuguese books.

Postby sfuqua » Sat Jan 29, 2022 4:05 pm

I didn't find the earlier thread, maybe I didn't look hard enough. It looks like there is a lot to read. Thanks for all of the wonderful suggestions!
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荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way
Basho[1689]

Sometimes Japanese is just too much...


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