Three Stories of Forgetting
Three Stories of Forgetting
Three Stories of Forgetting
Description
Description
"Three Stories of Forgetting spells out the nightmare of history in the beautiful language of dreams." --Samantha Hunt, author of The Unwritten Book
A Must-Read: NPR, Ms., Literary Hub, Book Riot, Foreign Policy, and Brittle Paper
Three men haunt these pages. Perhaps they are tormented ghosts who cannot find rest. All three have been expelled in some way, sent on solitary journeys into the night. Celestino, an old slave trader, returns to the solitude of his home and garden after a life of horrors. Boa Morte da Silva, an Angolan who served on the Portuguese side in the Colonial War and has become a valet in Lisbon, writes endlessly to his daughter, asking for her forgiveness. And Bruma, an enslaved man, initiates a young writer, Eça de Queirós, into the world of literature. In discrete yet overlapping tales, Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida's Three Stories of Forgetting explores the experiences of those who live within the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and the Portuguese Empire. In these unstable chapters, we find incarnations of our despair at the questions that history does not answer, and allegories that may yet reveal new ways of seeing through the dark.
About the Author
About the Author
Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida was born in Luanda, Angola, and raised in Portugal. She is the author of acclaimed novels including That Hair, a finalist for the PEN Translation Prize, and her work has won the Vergílio Ferreira Prize and the Oceanos Prize. Her stories and essays have appeared in Granta and Words Without Borders, among other publications.
Alison Entrekin is an award-winning translator from the Portuguese. Her translations include Clarice Lispector's Near to the Wild Heart, Paulo Lins's City of God, and João Guimarães Rosa's modernist classic Vastlands: The Crossing. Her work has earned her the New South Wales Premier's Translation Prize and Sydney PEN Medallion, and the 2022 Australasian Association of Writing Programs-Ubud Writers & Readers Festival Translators' Prize.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"[A] haunting triptych of stories."
--Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times
--Kirkus Reviews "Beautifully written . . . Dark and quiet yet powerful, this volume offers a thoughtful critique of colonial violence."
--Ms. "[A] contemplative triptych . . . Heart-wrenching and uplifting . . . A well-crafted depiction of the hidden bonds between individuals and empire."
--Publishers Weekly "[Three Stories of Forgetting] sharply and wrenchingly confronts terrifying colonial legacies . . . Haunting."
--Terry Hong, Shelf Awareness "[An] excellent collection."
--The Brooklyn Rail "One of the most important voices in Lusophone literature today, Almeida examines the ghosts of the Portuguese Empire through the eyes of men tormented by remorse and the spoils of war."
--Brittle Paper "A symphony of resistance."
--Público (Portugal) "A sumptuous triptych."
--Télérama (France) "Impressionistic . . . Poetic and precise."
--Le Monde (France) "Let the sentences melt in your mouth . . . One gets almost dizzy amid the beauty of the words, the sounds. An intoxicating read."
--Folha de São Paulo (Brazil) "Pereira de Almeida's sharp, sensual prose speaks of the inescapable past and of [a] trembling humanity. A rarity."
--Le Matricule des Anges (Frances) "Each of these three tales exerts a singular power of fascination . . . Magical."
--Le Temps (Switzerland)
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Fsg Originals
Pub date:
2025-12-09
Length:
304 pages
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