Set in the sweltering summer of 1938 in Portugal, a country under the Fascist shadow of Spain, PEREIRA MAINTAINS tells a tale of reluctant heroism. Dr. Peirera, an editor at a second-rate Lisbon newspaper, wants nothing to do with European politics. He's happy to translate 19th-century French stories. His closest confidante is a photograph of his late wife. All this changes when he meets Francesco Monteiro Rossi, an oddly charismatic young man. Pereira gives Rossi work, and continues to pay him, even after discovering that he is using the money to recruit for the anti-Franco International Brigade. PEREIRA MAINTAINS chronicles Pereira's ascent to consciousness, culminating in a devastating and reckless act of rebellion. Lisboa, 1938. Bajo la opresiva dictadura de Salazar, el furor de la guerra civil espanola llamando a la puerta y el fascismo italiano de fondo, Pereira, un periodista dedicado a la seccion de sucesos, recibe el encargo de dirigir la pagina cultural de un mediocre periodico. Necesitado de un colaborador, contacta con Monteiro Rossi, joven inequivocamente comprometido con la vida. La intensa relacion que se establece entre el viejo periodista, Monteiro y su novia Marta, cristalizara en una crisis personal, una maduracion interior y una dolorosa toma de conciencia que transformara profundamente la vida de Pereira.
Author
Antonio Tabucchi was an Italian writer and academic who taught Portuguese language and literature at the University of Siena, Italy. Deeply in love with Portugal, he was an expert, critic and translator of the works of the writer Fernando Pessoa from whom he drew the conceptions of saudade, of fiction and of the heteronyms. Tabucchi was first introduced to Pessoa's works in the 1960s when attending the Sorbonne. He was so charmed that, back in Italy, he attended a course of Portuguese language for a better comprehension of the poet.
