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The Return of the Caravels book cover
The Return of the Caravels
1988
First Published
3.55
Average Rating
224
Number of Pages

Called "hallucinatory and lyrical" (Publishers Weekly), The Return of the Caravels—selected as a New York times Summer Reading title—is a powerful indictment of Portuguese colonialism and another literary tour de force from the pen of Antonio Lobo Antunes, "the greatest living Portuguese writer" (Vogue). It is set in Lisbon as Portugal's African colonies gain their independence in the mid-1970s. In a contemporary response to Camoes' conquest epic 'The Lusiads', Antunes imagines Vasco da Gama and other heroes of Portuguese explorations beached amid the detritus of the empire's collapse. Or is it the modern colonials—with their mixed-race heritage and uneasy place in the "fatherland" — who have somehow ended up in sixteenth-century Lisbon? As da Gama begins winning back ownership of Lisbon piece by piece in crooked card games, four hundred years of Portuguese history mingle—the caravels dock next to Iraqi oil tankers, and the slave trade rubs shoulders with the duty-free shops. The Return of the Caravels is a startling and uncompromising look at one of Europe's great colonial powers, and how the era of conquest reshaped not just Portugal but the world. "... the voice of Nabokov by way of Cortazar, Gogol by way of Dylan." — Jonathan Levi, Los Angeles Times Book Review " Antunes has empathy for the contradictions of human feeling. He is a warm-bloodied writer."— Michael Pye, The New York Times Book Review "[Antunes] deserves a wide audience of discerning readers." — Michael Mewshaw, The Washington Post Book World

Avg Rating
3.55
Number of Ratings
578
5 STARS
22%
4 STARS
34%
3 STARS
27%
2 STARS
11%
1 STARS
6%
goodreads

Author

Antonio Lobo Antunes
Antonio Lobo Antunes
Author · 41 books

At the age of seven, António Lobo Antunes decided to be a writer but when he was 16, his father sent him to medical school - he is a psychiatrist. During this time he never stopped writing. By the end of his education he had to join the Army, to take part in the war in Angola, from 1970 to 1973. It was there, in a military hospital, that he gained interest for the subjects of death and the other. The Angolan war for independence later became subject to many of his novels. He worked many months in Germany and Belgium. In 1979, Lobo Antunes published his first novel - Memória de Elefante (Elephant's Memory), where he told the story of his separation. Due to the success of his first novel, Lobo Antunes decided to devote his evenings to writing. He has been practicing psychiatry all the time, though, mainly at the outpatient's unit at the Hospital Miguel Bombarda of Lisbon. His style is considered to be very dense, heavily influenced by William Faulkner, James Joyce and Louis-Ferdinand Céline. He has an extensive work, translated into several languages. Among the many awards he has received so far, in 2007 he received the Camões Award, the most prestigious Portuguese literary award.

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