Summary of Pereira MaintainsÂ
“Pereira Maintains” is set in Lisbon in 1938, during the authoritarian Salazar regime. Pereira is a middle-aged journalist who writes for the cultural pages of a small Lisbon newspaper. He struggles with his health, loneliness, and the heat in Lisbon. When a young man named Monteiro Rossi becomes his assistant and sends him left-wing articles, Pereira is too fearful to publish them. Yet after a terrible act of violence by the Portuguese police, Pereira takes a courageous stand in an act of rebellion.
Reasons to read Pereira Maintains
“Pereira Maintains” is a tender novella about the moral choices faced in times of political repression. The novel serves as a warning against political complacency and self-censorship. Italian writer Antonio Tabucchi, a university professor in Portuguese language and literature, won several literary prizes in Italy for this best-seller, including the Premio Campiello, the Premio Viareggio, and the Premio Scanno. “Pereira Maintains” also won the Aristeion Prize and was adapted into an Italian film of the same title in 1996. Tabucchi also wrote “The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro”, a novel set in Porto.
Setting: Lisbon (Portugal)
Book set in Portugal: Lisbon (Pereira’s apartment is at Rua da Saudade 22, his office at Rua Rodrigo da Fonseca 66, and his favourite restaurant CafĂ© OrquĂdea at Rua Alexandre Herculano)
Original title: Sostiene Pereira
Year of publication: 1994
Nr of pages: 160
