Summary of The Piano Cemetery
“The Piano Cemetery” tells the story of a Portuguese carpenters’ family in the Benfica neighbourhood of Lisbon during the early 20th century. At the back of the carpenter’s shop is a room filled with broken pianos, whose parts are used to repair instruments across Lisbon. “The Piano Cemetery” is a family saga, told through a series of short episodes, exploring the love affairs, marriages, ambitions, and frustrations of the Lázaro family. The novel is partially told by Francisco Lázaro, who runs the marathon of Stockholm.
Reasons to read The Piano Cemetery
“The Piano Cemetery” is a poignant family chronicle, partly based on the true story of Francisco Lázaro, a Portuguese athlete who died during the 1912 Stockholm Olympic marathon. José Luís Peixoto, a Portuguese author, received the José Saramago Prize in 2001 for his novel “Nenhum Olhar” (published in English as “The Implacable Order of Things”) and the Oceanos Prize in 2016 for his novel “Galveais”.
Setting: Lisbon – Benfica (Portugal) & Stockholm (Sweden)
Original title: Cemitério de Pianos
Year of publication: 2006
Nr of pages: 277
