by Antonio Tabucchi, Pierre-Henry Gomont · ASTIBERRI · tapa dura · ISBN 9788416880331
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In Lisbon in 1938, cultural journalist Pereira, an obese, widowed, and taciturn man, lives immersed in the nostalgia of his past, believing that literature is the most important thing. Oblivious to the political situation in his country and Europe, where the Spanish Civil War and fascism are on the rise, his life takes a turn when he meets a young activist fighting against the Salazar dictatorship. Pierre-Henry Gomont adapts Antonio Tabucchi's novel, published in 1994, into a comic, using the story as a metaphor for the rise of Berlusconi in Italy. Gomont manages to capture the contrast between the warm atmosphere of Lisbon and the oppression of the dictatorship, using an original visual resource to represent the theory of souls in the story, where multiple souls fight in each individual's consciousness, reflecting Pereira's doubts and change towards commitment and the fight for freedom.
Antonio Tabucchi was an Italian writer and academic who taught Portuguese language and literature at the University of Siena, Italy. Deeply in love with Portugal, he was an expert, critic and translator of the works of Fernando Pessoa from whom he drew the conceptions of saudade, of fiction and of the heteronyms. Tabucchi was first introduced to Pessoa's works in the 1960s when attending the Sorbonne. He was so charmed that when he returned to Italy, he took an introductory course in Portuguese for a better comprehension of the poet.
