Good morning everyone and welcome to the latest edition of What are you reading right now?, where hoddle headquarters asks the commentariat the books they’re reading:
Several months ago one of you recommended I pick up the book The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago after I mentioned how much I enjoy reading Fernando Pessoa and the Richard Zenith biography.
Let me take this opportunity to thank that hoddler. I finished the book on Saturday and I will remember it as one of my favourite books, and one of the most powerful I’ve read.
The book takes place in Portugal in 1936. Ricardo Reis returns to a dreary Portugal after living in exile for 16 years in Brazil. He checks into the Hotel Braganca where he meets some strange characters including Marcenda Sampaio, a woman with a limp left hand, and Lydia, a chambermaid. He also somehow winds up being questioned by the Portuguese police for reasons never made clear.
The strangest of these interactions, however, is the man who created him. Fernando Pessoa has recently died and his ghost visits Reis from beyond the tomb. For those unaware of Pessoa, he is known as the godfather of Portuguese modernism and for creating dozens of heteronyms: fully formed alter egos who had lives, careers and distinct writing styles of their own.
Several of these were also considered some of the most illustrious writers in Portugal: Alberto Caeiro, Alvaro de Campos, and Reis.
In the months that Pessoa roams the illusory Portugal, he and Reis hold several metaphysical discussions on what it means to live, to die, on love and the changing forces surrounding them that will plunge the world into its second World War.
There is only one way this book could end. Pessoa is a ghost, and, according to the rules laid out in this book, can only roam the earth for so long until they permanently return to the tomb. And of course, for Reis, himself a far-flung extension of Pessoa, must follow.
Fitzie’s track of the day:I Will Follow You into the Dark, by Death Cab for Cutie
And now for your links:
The Guardian: “Bukayo Saka is playing through pain barrier, says Tuchel, as World Cup looms”
BBC: “David Sullivan banned from contact with West Ham women’s and youth teams since 2023”
The Telegraph: “Atletico Madrid mock Real after phantom £129m Julian Alvarez bid”
