Vivaldo Bonfim is a bored clerk who often takes novels and novellas to the revenue office he is employed at. One day, while pretending to be hard at work, he gets lost in his reading and disappears from this world.

His twelve-year-old son Elias sets out in search of him, travelling through classic works of literature brimming with murderers, overwhelming passions, wild beasts and other perils made of letters.

 

WINNER OF THE MARIA ROSA COLAÇO LITERARY PRIZE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRANSLATION AVAILABLE

 

“A moving and cultured journey through literature and through adolescence as well.” Rita Pimenta, Público

“The elegant, fluid writing, with its great ability to conjure images […] [and] the obvious transversality of its audience proves that a good book should have more than one layer.” Carla Maia de Almeida, Notícias Sábado

“This amazingly inventive novel, by opening up avenues which shake us to the core, reminds us, in a simple and immediate way, the reason literature and reading exist in the first place.” Blic (Serbian newspaper)

 

128 pages  –  Original language:  Portuguese (Caminho, 2010). Rights sold to:  Brazil (LeYa Brasil), Bulgaria (Prozoretz), Canada (Les Allusifs), China (Phoenix Literature Publishing / Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House), English (Dedalus), Italy (Officina Libraria), Latin America (Panamericana), Macedonia (Congress Service Center), Serbia (Kreativni Centar), Slovakia (Portugalsky Institút), Spain (Blackie Books), Thailand (Library House Bangkok / Bookmoby Press).