PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Fernando Pessoa was born in Lisbon in 1888. He grew up in Durban, South Africa, where his stepfather was Portuguese consul. He returned to Lisbon in 1905 and worked as a clerk in an import-export company until his death in 1935. Most of Pessoa's writing was not published during his lifetime; The Book of Disquiet first came out in Portugal in 1982. Since its first publication, it has been hailed as a classic. The new edition was edited by Jeronimo Pizarro and translated by Margaret Jull Costa.
The very book to read when you wake at 3am and can't get back to sleep - mysteries, misgivings, fears and dreams and wonderment. Like nothing else. -- Philip Pullman In a time which celebrates fame, success, stupidity, convenience and noise, here is the perfect antidote -- John Lanchester * Daily Telegraph * A complete masterpiece, the sort of book one makes friends with and cannot bear to be parted with. Boredom informs it, but not boringly. Pessoa loved the minutiae of what we care to deem the ordinary life, and that love enriches and deepens his art -- Paul Bailey * Independent * A meandering, melancholic series of reveries and meditations ... beguiling and mysterious -- William Boyd It's hard to explain how this modernist hymnal of boredom, fatigue, dejection and jadedness is so beautiful and life affirming -- Mike McCormack * New Statesman Books of the Year * To read and then contemplate him is to be lifted a little bit above the earth in a floating bubble. One becomes both of the world and not of it. There's no one like him, apart from all of us. -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian * An odd, occasionally exasperating and sometimes beautiful book and one that will be your friend at 3am on a sleepless night. -- Sophia Martelli * Observer * Fernando Pessoa was simply one of the best 20th-century writers ever... captivating... a series of beautifully wistful reminiscences, diary entries and aphoristic snippets... we recommend it like crazy. Pick one up and open it anywhere and we promise you'll be richly rewarded. -- Stuart Hammond * Dazed and Confused *
