Pereira Maintains

Description

In the sweltering summer of 1938 in Portugal, a country under the fascist shadow of Spain, a mysterious young man arrives at the doorstep of Dr Pereira. So begins an unlikely alliance that will result in a devastating act of rebellion. This is Pereira's testimony.

Reviews

'A masterpiece of compression. A political history of 1930s Portugal, a love story between a man and his dead wife, a gloriously successful formal experiment, and an irresistible thriller - and it can be read with enormous pleasure in a single afternoon.' - Mohsin Hamid 'Pereira Maintains is small only in size. Its themes are great ones - courage, betrayal, fidelity, love, corruption; and its treatment of them is subtle, skilful, and clear. It's so clear, in fact, that you can see a very long way down, into the heart of a flawed but valiant human being, into the sickness of a nation, into the depths of political evil. It's the most impressive novel I've read for years, and one of the very few that feels truly necessary.' - Philip Pullman 'Close to being a perfect novel - brief, tragic, inspiring' - John Carey, Chairman of the International Man Booker 2002 'Pereira is a marvelously complex creation. One of the most intriguing and appealing character studies in recent European fiction.' - Kirkus Reviews

Author description

Antonio Tabucchi is one of Italy's most acclaimed contemporary writers. Born in Pisa in 1943, Tabucchi is the author of twenty novels and short story collections, nine of which have been translated into English, together with numerous essays and plays. Twice shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, he has been awarded many prestigious prizes, including the Prix Medicis etranger for Indian Nocturne and the Premio Campiello, the Premio Viareggio and the Aristeion Prize for Pereira Maintains. Emeritus professor at the University of Siena, he has taught at Bard College in New York, the Ecole de Hautes Etudes and the College de France in Paris, and currently divides his time between Paris and Lisbon.