The launch of several new authors in Portugal, a memoir by Manuel Alegre, the Leya Prize 2023 and a posthumous novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez are some of the news from book publishers for 2024.
“There are no birds here”, by Victor Vidal, winner of the Leya Prize, arrives in bookstores in April, the same month that Dom Quixote publishes “Sons of the fable”, a new novel by Fernando Aramburu, in which the Spanish author of “Patria” returns to the theme of ETA and the end of the armed struggle.
At the same time, Dom Quixote is also launching in Portugal a Canadian writer, Sarah Bernstein, with her “Study for Obedience”, a novel that was a finalist for the 2023 Booker Prize, as well as the unpublished correspondence of John le Carré, under the title “A Spy in Private – The Letters of John le Carré 1945-2020”.
Before that comes the new novel by Zadie Smith, “The Fraud”, based on historical facts, a novel by Spanish author Pilar Adón, who is new to Portugal and has won several literary prizes, entitled “Of Beasts and Birds”, the Brazilian book that won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Jabuti prize, “The Word That Remains”, by Stênio Gardel, and Manuel Alegre’s memoir, “Memórias minhas”.
On March 6, Dom Quixote publishes “See you in August”, a posthumous novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and in the same month publishes “The Rainbow”, by Yasunari Kawabata, a novel still unpublished in Portugal by the Japanese writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, as well as another book that was a finalist for the 2023 Booker Prize, “The Only Daughter”, by Mexican writer Guadalupe Nettel.
Other novelties from this publishing group are “The Faces”, about a woman on the edge of madness, by Tove Ditlevsen, author of the “Copenhagen Trilogy”, and “Desertion”, by Mathias Énard, a French writer who won the Goncourt Prize and reflects on what war does to the most intimate aspects of life.
Porto Editora is also launching two new authors in Portugal: a contemporary South Korean author, who is publishing “Kim Jiyoung, Born in 1982”, and an 18th century English writer, who signed a person of interest under the pseudonym Sophia, who is publishing “A mulher não é inferior ao homem”, a work about gender equality, written in 1739.
The first novel focuses on the exemplary life of Kim Jiyoung, who is nevertheless the target of criticism, accusations and scorn, portraying the reality of a young South Korean woman and the profound impacts of gender inequality on women’s lives.
The second is considered one of the “first proto-feminist works and is a manifesto calling for change, urging readers to question and confront the structures that perpetuated inequality”.
Porto Editora is also launching “Mercury Pictures Presents”, by Anthony Mara, the story of a woman who had to reinvent herself to survive, moving from Mussolini’s Italy to the glamor of 1940s Los Angeles, and is reissuing the first title published in the Dois Mundos collection, “The Book of San Michele”, by Axel Munthe, at Livros do Brasil, when the label celebrates its 80th anniversary.
Maria Antónia Oliveira’s “literary biography” of Alexandre O’Neill has been revised and expanded for the celebration of the author’s centenary and will be published by Assírio e Alvim.
Edições 70 has new collections, dedicated to Freedom and Equality, and will be publishing classics by Machiavelli and Nietzsche, while the Almedina group’s literary label, Minotauro, is launching the stories of two talented couples who made history in the visual arts and pop music: “Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera” and “John Lennon and Yoko Ono”, both by Francesca Ferretti de Blonay.
“Luminous Whiteness” is the new novel by Norwegian Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse, and the first since the completion of his “Septology”, which arrives from Cavalo de Ferro, while Elsinore will publish a new novel by Chilean Alia Trabucco Zerán, author of “Limpa”, this time a South American road trip by three young people, grappling with Chile’s heavy political legacy, entitled “The Subtraction”.
Alfaguara debuts in Portugal what Penguin Random House claims is “one of the most eminent writers in the English language today”, Jamaica Kincaid, with the novel “Annie John”, which tells “a sublime and universal story about uprooting, identity and family ties”.
Among the highlights from Relógio d’Água is “Maniac”, by Benjamín Labatut, author of “Um terrível verdor”, in which the Chilean author once again reflects on what happens when the greatest human minds confront the biggest questions in the universe, this time centered on the mathematician John von Neumann.
Other new releases include another book by Irish author Claire Keegan (“At such a late hour”), who has already published “Welcoming” and “Little things like these”, an epistolary novel by Italian author Natalia Ginzburg, “Dear Michele”, and the third volume of Liu Cixin’s “Remembrance of the Land of the Past” trilogy, “The end of death”.
The publisher also highlights the publication of the most recent book of short stories by writer Lydia Davis, “Our Strangers” (released this year in the United States), an original 2018 novel by Chinese writer Can Xue, who has often been tipped as a Nobel favorite, entitled “Frontier”, and the new one by Irish author Sebastian Barry, “Beyond Memory”.
Editorial Presença begins the year with the release in Portugal of a 1961 Italian classic about the mafia by Leonardo Sciascia, “The Day of the Owl”, and the publication of the prequel to “A Man in Decline”, by Japanese writer Osamu Dazai, entitled “The Flowers of Laughter”.
Other novelties include two authors who have never been published in Portugal before: “E Três Maçãs Caíram do Céu”, by Russian writer of Armenian origin Nariné Abgarian (translated by Nina and Filipe Guerra), and “Notes on an Execution”, by American Danya Kukafka.
Guerra e Paz is dedicating part of its 2024 publications to commemorating the 50th anniversary of April 25, such as “Before April 25: It Was Forbidden”, an updated version of António Costa Santos’ book, “50 Anos de Abril no Algarve”, by Ramiro Santos, and a book organized by Manuel S. Fonseca and illustrated by Nuno Saraiva, whose title, still provisional, is “25 de Abril, no Princípio Era o Verbo”.
Another of the publisher’s bets is a book interview with Pedro Abrunhosa, written by José Jorge Letria, entitled “I’d really like to write about silence”.
Emilio Gentile’s “History of Fascism” and Roger Scruton’s “England, an elegy” will be published in the “Books Don’t Surrender” collection.
In January, Tinta-da-China will publish a new edition of “História da Bela Fria”, by Teresa Veiga, which includes an unpublished short story.