Two Books in Portuguese

As I have done with similar reads, this is yet another summary of two books by Portuguese authors, although one of the ones I will mention isn't Portuguese, but from Mozambique and his work is originally published in Portuguese, which is one of the official languages of that country, a former colony of Portugal. 

Apneia by Tânia Ganho is a contemporary work, and the title can be literally translated as "apnoea". The main character Adriana is the narrator and she describes in detail a lot of her struggle to ensure her son's well being after she and her ex, Alessandro, get a divorce. Although they live in Portugal, with the divorce Alessandro keeps suggesting he will take their son to live with him, not exactly in Italy, his country of origin, but wherever his works takes him, which might include an Arab country where women don't have as many rights. This does not happen but the idea of the threat is enough to cause stress and what once made them a loving couple now seems impossible to have happened. 

I agree with some of the readers of this book when they say the story is too repetitive and monotone for most of the nearly 700 pages. A better editing would have made this even more distressing to read without all the repetitiveness which, for me, sometimes led to boredom. The story seems to be simple, just another terrible portrait of what divorce can do and cause, but there's an even deeper reason for why Alessandro tries to manipulate their son against the mother and why so many mind games. That reason isn't such a novelty, sadly, but it still provokes quite a reaction, especially because it is so sadly easy for children to be hurt in so many different ways and the law isn't always easy to go through, as the author painstakingly has described. This is fiction, so hope must exist, however the writing wasn't always as purposeful as the theme might have suggested.

Grade: 6/10

A Varanda do Frangipani by Mia Couto is a novel set on Mozambique, and the plot revolves around the investigation of a murder. The police officer that is tasked with this carries in his soul another person's mind, the narrator. There are some possible suspects of the crime, but the more people the officer interviews, the less he understands. He is looking for facts and real situations but everyone keeps talking about the past and dreamlike scenarios. What is real after all?

This was a surprise, for the author is quite known here but I confess I had not read any book by him before. His writing style, I can see, is filled with metaphors and allegories and everything is on the surreal and dreamlike realm, which the reader has to bear in mind before accepting all as it is. The book isn't big and the spirit narrator has a clear voice, but of course the other characters not as much. I think the intention was to use the murder as a metaphor for what has been going on in Mozambique, a country devastated by colonial war and yet so many issues, civil war and such. Although I liked the writing in a Portuguese evoking the Mozambican speech, some passages were still difficult to grasp. I think this just wasn't better for me because there's too much surrealism for not enough factual scenes.

Grade: 6/10