PORTUGAL
José Luís Peixoto (1974) is a Portuguese novelist, poet and playwright. So far, he has published thirteen prose books, four poetry collections, two travelogues and two children's books. His works have been translated into more than thirty languages. He is considered one of the most talented contemporary Portuguese authors. He is the winner of many national and international awards, including the "José Saramago" award.
He was born in a small town in the Alentejo region. He studied modern languages and literature at the Nova University in Lisbon. After his studies he was a teacher in Portugal and in Cabo Verde. He published his first work in 2000. He has been writing professionally since 2001.
With the publication of the novel "Blank Gaze", José became the youngest winner of the "José Saramago" prize, which is awarded every two years for the best novel written in Portuguese. Acclaimed as one of the best literary works of the decade, the work experienced great international success and was nominated for all the literary awards in Portugal. In 2003, he wrote the collection of short stories "Antidote" in collaboration with the Portuguese heavy-metal band "Moonspell", which was a great success with the music audience.
He was also awarded with:
- "Best foreign novel published in Spain" for the book "The Piano Cemetery" in 2007,
- The “Daniel Faria Prize”, awarded to the best collection of poetry in Portugal published by a poet under 35 years of age,
- "Best Poetry Book in Portugal",
- The "Salerno" Award for the literary work "Book" – book of Europe for 2013,
- The “Oceanos” Award for the best novel in the Portuguese-speaking world,
- "Best Foreign Novel Translated into Japanese" in 2019.
He frequently publishes travelogues for the most popular travel magazines in Portugal and Brazil.
“Great authors always bring something new and, by doing so, change the face of literature. The history of literature is long, a lot has been written throughout the centuries and in all cultures. It’s difficult to find something that was not written before. Part of my way to deal with that is to use my experience as a subject.”
Livro (Book)
Translation to Macedonian: Nenad Trpovski
Antolog, Skopje, 2024
A mother gives her child a book and tells him that she will be back soon. She never comes back. Illidio will grow up in a small town in Portugal and fall in love with beautiful Adelaide. But the couple separates. The girl leaves for France and takes with her only one book that she receives as a gift – the same one that Illidio's mother left for him many years ago. Adelaide will marry again through the book, but her husband is more interested in politics than his wife. Illidio decides to travel in search of his ex-girlfriend, leaving behind Josue, the man who raised him.
"Book" is a chronicle of the rural exodus in which over a million Portuguese emigrants sought their fortune between 1960 and 1974.