Fiction. Autobiography. Translated from the Portuguese with an introduction and translator's notes by Alfred Mac Adam. These short, aphoristic paragraphs, ranging in size from a few sentences to a few pages, comprise the "autobiography" of Bernardo Soares, one of Fernando Pessoa's many devastatingly captivating literary alter egos. Pessoa (1888-1935) was a multitude of writers in one: his works were composed by what he named "heteronyms," alter egos with distinct biographies, ideologies, influences, horoscopes. THE BOOK OF DISQUIET was found after Pessoa's death, on disordered scraps of paper in a trunk, and was finally published nearly 50 years later. "A fractured assemblage of quasi-symbolist reveries, cynical epigrams, musings on quotidian torpor, and gorgeously wrought depressive fits, the book is probably as close as Pessoa could ever come to writing an autobiography." (--VOICE LITERARY SUPPLEMENT) "I was a genius more than in my dreams and less than in life. This is my tragedy. I was the runner who fell almost at the tape, and when I was almost there, I was the first." If genius consists of complicated and heartfelt musings, delightful and incisive use of language (not to mention magnificent translation), and brilliance of mind and expression, then certainly this book is an act (or perpetration?) of genius.
© 2003-2026