First published 2011
José Eduardo Agualusa takes on the role of spiritual medium, channeling the voices of 24 deceased literary giants. Through psychographic writing, he brings back Eça de Queirós to comment on modern Portugal's political situation. Machado de Assis shares his thoughts on contemporary spelling reforms. Vladimir Nabokov reveals what he always wanted readers to know about Barack Obama. Fernando Pessoa, Jorge Luis Borges, Vinicius de Moraes, Sophia de Mello Breyner, Saint-Exupéry, Clarice Lispector, Padre António Vieira, João Cabral de Melo Neto, and Camilo Castelo Branco all weigh in on current affairs through Agualusa's pen. These literary spirits offer opinions on both weighty matters and trivial daily concerns. The dead writers speak from beyond the grave about our contemporary world, their distinctive voices filtering through to address modern questions they never lived to see.
Genres: literary-fiction, magical-realism, 21st-century
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Portugal
Period: Contemporary
159 pages · Paperback · Tinta da China