Despite the ongoing controversial issues surrounding the publication of Alentejo prometido (Promised Alentejo) by Henrique Raposo, which I feel are more of a cultural "misunderstanding" I read it overnight and did enjoy it. If for nothing else his prose needs to be acknowledged as a fusion of realism and story telling that can't but dazzle the reader.
"Where do I belong? In all truth the place where I was born has become strange to me as if having turned into a performing stage and when I am on it it feels like I am playing a role. The other, where I have been living at for over a century does sometimes feel like a moving away ship which has left me behind. Should I look for another? Neither would age allow it nor would the ties let me. Because it's like this: I don't belong but what holds me on is too strong." - J. Rentes de Carvalho
Note: J. Rentes de Carvalho 's extract has been freely translated from the Portuguese into English.
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