Livraria Lello Suggests…

Afonso Cruz is a writer, illustrator, filmmaker, musician and October “Author of the Month” at Livraria Lello. He has published over 30 books and illustrated many others, including novels, short stories, essays, poetry, theater and nonfiction. In the autobiography that accompanies his works, he includes two fundamental notes: “he lives in the countryside and likes beer”.

His most recent work was released in April, precisely on World Book Day. In O Vício dos Livros, Literature is the protagonist of a set of historical accounts, curiosities, reflections and unmissable personal memories.

 Afonso Cruz is also the author of novels such as Para Onde Vamos os Guarda-Chuvas. A work that, at times through an almost poetic beauty, at times through the most violent accounts, takes on a truly disturbing humanity. These two titles are the suggestions of Livraria Lello Booksellers for this month.

O Vício dos Livros, Afonso Cruz

A work that book addicts cannot miss and that promises to help increase the number of addicts to the pleasure of reading. If reasons were lacking, in one of the texts included in O Vício dos Livros, Afonso Cruz cites a study by Yale University to expose the benefits of reading: “Reading 30 minutes a day will make you live, on average, another two years. If not for the pleasure of reading, maybe we should read for our health.”

But not all arguments are purely objective. In another passage, the author tells that his grandfather had given him the book Eles Vieram de Madrugada, by Manuela Câncio Reis (whose husband was a political prisoner for many years). The dedication of his grandfather (also a political prisoner) said: “For my grandson, so that he can understand a little of what I went through”. “This book then stopped being Manuela Câncio Reis and became the book that my grandfather wrote to me. And the voice I heard while reading the book was yours”, writes Afonso Cruz, highlighting the emotional value of the stories that make each book unique.

O Vício dos Livros is a delicious collection of short texts that, for the most part, were originally published in the Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias, where Afonso Cruz wrote the monthly chronicle Paralaxe. Between historical accounts and literary curiosities, reflections and personal memories, the author dialogues with several works, as many writers and all readers, making Literature a protagonist.

Para Onde Vamos os Guarda-Chuvas, Afonso Cruz

Para Onde Vamos os Guarda-Chuvas is set in a romanticized Orient, based on what we think was its past and believe to be its present, with all that this Orient (and any other place in the world) has of magic, of different and perverse.

In an expertly constructed tangle of stories, Afonso Cruz leads the reader to deeply connect with the emotional universe of each of the characters. Sometimes through an almost poetic beauty, sometimes through the most violent stories, he builds a narrative coated with humanity and truly unsettling.

Para Onde Vamos os Guarda-Chuvas is one of the author's most acclaimed works. The book was published in 2013 and the following year won the Portuguese Society of Authors (SPA) Award for Best Narrative Fiction Book. It is unanimously considered by the critics “the high point of the narrative capacity” of Afonso Cruz.


To order these or other works by Afonso Cruz, send us an email to info@livrairalello.pt.