Books

Written to mark the 25th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, Twenty and Zinc is a short novel that recounts the daily life of a family in a small Mozambican town on the eve of April 25, 1974.

Having had close relatives, such as my father, mother, grandparents, and uncles, who lived in Mozambique, and having recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of April 25, it was a work that generated considerable curiosity.

The story intertwines the voices of colonizers and colonized, while news of the revolution slowly arrives in a world still suspended in colonial time.

What makes the novel remarkable is its refusal to celebrate or condemn, always debating the issue of belonging and identity of its different characters, who were ultimately all prisoners of a distant regime.

Liberation does not come as a triumph, but as perplexity, with the sudden absence of rules and personal reckoning.

The Weinersmiths — Kelly, a biologist, and Zach, a cartoonist — spent years researching the science, biology, reproduction, ecologty, law, geopolitics, sociology and economics of space settlement, only to find themselves deeply sceptical of the enterprise.

From the physiological effects of long-duration spaceflight, the lack of reproductive biology research in space, the legal vacuum that governs off-Earth territory, covering existing treaties on Earth and analysing self-determination, territorial integrity and the geopolitical issues that permanent settlements would have to overcome.

For all the “Mars settlement” aficionados, this is bucket of very cold water, displaying all the lack of knowledge and concerns that need to be addressed before such endeavour takes place, to the point that midway through the book a suggestion is made to focus instead on a Moon colony, and in the end they provide a really interesting plan on where they would allocate the current research and financial investment/spending.

Quite interestingly, a few days ago Elon Musk shifted SpaceX’s goal from its Mars base to the Moon, which ties in with prognosis of this book.

Funny, meticulously researched, and a necessary counterweight to Silicon Valley’s space romanticism.

Winner of the Royal Society Trivedi, Science Book Prize 2024.

Winner of the 2023 Booker Prize, this dystopian novel follows a Dublin mother trying to save her family as Ireland descends into totalitarianism.

There are echos of Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984” and captures a chilling landscape of political turmoil that resonates deeply with today’s sociopolitical climate, especially in the context of the Trump administration’s second term and recent events in Minnesota.

Lynch’s stylistic writing has no paragraph breaks and dialogue without quotation marks which reminded me of the Portuguese Nobel Prize winner José Saramago.

A brilliant, haunting literary manifesto about a democratic society falling prey of autocratic totalitarianism.

An autobiographical graphic novel, in the style of Guy Delisle, about Beaton’s time working in Alberta’s (Canada) oil sands to pay off student debt. This is a book about sexual harassment and misogyny. About women working in a men’s world.

A MUST read for all, especially men.

Named after a disaster where hundreds of ducks died in toxic tailings ponds, “the book draws devastating parallels between environmental and human degradation”.

It also provides a window into the imbalances of the Canadian economy and one of it’s most profitable sectors.

Barack Obama named it a favourite of 2022.

Recommended my a dear (Canadian) friend of mine, this is a graphic novel documenting the author’s, Guy Delisle. two months in Pyongyang while working for a French animation company.

I decided to order a second hand copy after seeing the asking price between £2-£3, reading it for the second time.

Delisle is a master of capturing the surreal interaction with it’s North Korean citizens in addition to its bureaucracy, propaganda, and tightly controlled reality through humour and sarcasm. A rare snapshot into the world’s most isolated nation.

This ia a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution that became a global phenomenon.

Harari argues that Homo Sapiens’ rise to dominance stemmed from our ability to create fictional constructs and how they shape human societies, focusing on three key elements: religion, nations, and money.

His provocative claim that the Agricultural Revolution, the transition from Foraging to Farming, was for a brief time a painful hurdle our conventional thinking. He also emphasizes the critical role of storytelling and sharing narratives in the evolution of our species.

A well written and engaging thought-provoking book about the evolution of Homo Sapiens'.

Winner of the 2024 Booker Prize, this novel follows six astronauts over 24 hours on the International Space Station, over 16 orbits, which centres on the evolving devastating storm in the Philippines focusing on the relationships of the Austronaurs and Cosmonauts aboard the ISS and of their family on Earth.

With just over 120 pages, suggesting the novel can be read rather quickly, in fact requires a careful consideration, making it a profound meditative experience, highlighting just how fragile our planet and our human connections are.

Full disclosure: I am a Brian Greene fan. Additional disclosure: I am a passionate about space, astronomy and physics.

Brian Greene employs the Empire State Building as a vivid metaphor to illustrate the passage of time and the potential evolution of the universe.

As we reach the pinnacle of the building, it reflects the ultimate fate of the universe, whether it be entropy, collapse, or rebirth, challenging readers to consider humanity’s place (or the absence of it) in these future scenarios.

And yes… the second law of Thermodynamics is a recurring reminder of a universe governed by entropy.

Published in 1991, this is one of Saramago’s masterpieces – written in his characteristic style (no paragraph breaks, dialogue without quotation marks), the work is a profoundly philosophical and provocative reimagining of the life of Christ, portraying Jesus as a humanized and imperfect character with passions and doubts.

The novel delves into profound theological questions: the problem of evil, the nature of a God portrayed as power-hungry and indifferent to human suffering.

It generated immense controversy, including condemnation from the Vatican and the Portuguese government blocking his nomination for the European Literary Prize, leading Saramago to leave Portugal.

Essential reading for anyone grappling with issues of faith, morality, and divine justice.

Winner of the 2022 Grémio Literário Prize, this biography explores the life of the last king of Portugal, D. Manuel II, whose reign was marked by tragedy from its very beginning.

At the age of 18, motivated by the regicide, he was thrust onto the throne during one of Portugal’s most turbulent periods, reigning for only two years before the republic was proclaimed in 1910.

The biography illuminates not only Manuel’s personal story, but also the final days of the Portuguese monarchy and the socio-political forces that led to its downfall.

A modern classic that forces you to sharpen your thinking about startups, business and the future, based on Thiel’s legendary CS183 class at Stanford University.

The core concept is powerful: progress from “zero to one” (creating something entirely new) rather than “one to n” (incremental improvement).

Thiel makes the provocative contrarian case for monopoly over competition, arguing that competition kills profits while monopolies can afford to think long-term and innovate.

It all starts with the contrarian challenge: “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”

“Own Voice: Jorge Ginja and Mário Viegas - Poetry, Resistance and Freedom”

A remarkable time capsule containing previously unreleased recordings of the legendary Portuguese actor Mário Viegas, made by Jorge Ginja in 1969 when Viegas was only 21 years old.

The recordings were made when Ginja, about to go to war, asked to use Viegas’ voice to recite poems she wanted to take with her.

The book brings together 49 texts by different authors including Alexandre O’Neill, José Carlos Ary dos Santos and Manuel Alegre. Each text features a QR code to access Viegas’ recitations on a mobile phone.

“Estuaries”

One of the founding texts of Portuguese neorealism, published in 1941 and censored by the Estado Novo regime, it is a masterpiece of social criticism.

The novel tells the harsh story of lower-class boys who, due to their social status, are forced to work in a small brick factory instead of studying.

Dedicated to “The sons of men who were never children,” it is a devastating critique of the social conditions of the Estado Novo era and its numerous inequalities.

“Tainted Love”

A disturbing and necessary novel that explores domestic violence from the chilling perspective of the aggressor who justifies and legitimizes his acts.

Two brothers narrate the story of a family’s dissolution. Pedrosa’s writing is colloquial, simple, and devastatingly direct, hitting like a punch in the stomach.

Intense, uncomfortable, and necessary reading that affirms Ana Bárbara Pedrosa as a serious force in contemporary Portuguese literature.

A gripping chronicle of Portugal’s violent trajectory from a secondary nation to European power, dominating the spice trade and building the first global economy.

Crowley masterfully narrates the first 30 years of Portuguese seafaring in the Indian Ocean (early 1500s), from Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the sea route to India to the death of Afonso de Albuquerque.

The book is both a high seas adventure and a nuanced examination of Portuguese bravery, curiosity, cruelty, greed and not shying away from the horrific violence that characterized Portugal’s imperial conquest over Muslim rulers.