GonÃ§alo M. Tavares,Roopanjali Roy,Rachel Caiano,Philip Graham
Imagine you could create your own utopian writers' quarterâ€”a close-knit community of those you admire or who have influenced you profoundly. For award-winning Portuguese author GonÃ§alo M. Tavares, six favorite ,senhores, â€”â€œMistersâ€ Calvino, ValÃ©ry, Juarroz, Kraus, Walser, and Henriâ€”haunt the sidewalks, cafes, and back alleys of a fictive Lisbon ,bairro.,Readers will appreciate the homages to Italian fabulist Italo Calvino, French poet and critic Paul ValÃ©ry, Argentinean poet Roberto Juarroz, Swiss modernist Robert Walser, Austrian writer and satirist Karl Kraus, and Belgian neosurrealist Henri Michaux, but Tavaresâ€™s deceptively simple style appeals on many levels. In this imaginative territory, for instance, diminutive Mister ValÃ©ry jumps up and downâ€”satisfied to be as tall as his fellow men if â€œonly for a shorter while.â€ His more egocentric neighbor, Mister Henri, philosophizes about the virtues of absinthe, acknowledging the drink can make equally for a better or worse reality.,Enhancing each story are the drawings of Rachel Caiano, whose minimalist depictions mirror the essence of the personal, logical, and political absurdities that intrigue in these simple yet profound tales.,When we visit Tavaresâ€™s neighborhood, its building blocks made of books, we are also visiting a version of ourselves. â€”Philip Graham, from the foreword
Short Stories,Fiction,Cultural,Portugal,Literature,European Literature,Portuguese Literature
The Neighborhood