Antonio Tabucchi

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books'My dear friend, he said, life is strange and strange things happen in life'It is a hot July Sunday in Lisbon and our narrator has an appointment to meet someone by the quayside. But when his guest does not arrive, he spends the day wandering the deserted city, encountering some memorable characters along the way: a disoriented taxi driver, an accordionist, a Seller of Stories and, finally, the long-awaited ghost of the late, great Fernando Pessoa.

Zharkim ijulskim voskresenem bezymjannyj rasskazchik puteshestvuet po Lissabonu. Na puti emu vstrechajutsja raznye ljudi - nekotorye iz nikh realnye, a nekotorye suschestvujut lish v ego vospominanijakh, - on poseschaet kafe, gostinitsy, edet v prigorod, a v kontse dnja vstrechaetsja s nenazvannym poetom, v kotorom legko ugadyvaetsja Fernando Pessoa. Etot tekst otchasti napominaet travelog, otchasti - gastronomicheskij gid Portugalii, on balansiruet mezhdu galljutsinatornym i realnym, mezhdu nejavnymi fantazijami i podrobnymi opisanijami mest i bljud. Ne sluchajno Antonio Tabukki napisal roman na portugalskom, ved etim tekstom on vozdaet dan uvazhenija strane i gorodu, stavshimi dlja nego rodnymi. "Chitat etot roman - vse ravno chto vesti ozhivlennuju besedu posle uzhina s chelovekom, u kotorogo slishkom blestjaschij um, chtoby vnikat v detali. Vmeste s tem v etom stremitelnom tekste, spletennom beskonechnymi zapjatymi, est nesomnennoe, prostupajuschee v potoke rechi, ocharovanie i volshebstvo". - Kirkus Reviews

'Subtle, skillful, and clear. It's so clear, in fact, that you can see a very long way down, into the heart of a flawed but valiant human being, into the sickness of a nation, into the depths of political evil. It's the most impressive novel I've read for years, and one of the very few that feels truly necessary' - Philip PullmanIn the sweltering summer of 1938, with Lisbon in the grip of Portugal's dictatorship of António Salazar, a journalist is coming to terms with the rise of fascism around him and its insidious impact on his work. Consumed by the passing of his wife and the child he never had, Pereira lives a quiet and lonely existence. One day, the young and charismatic Monteiro Rossi enters his life, changing everything. A man who once shied away from criticizing Portugal's authoritarian regime finds himself unable to stay quiet any longer, resulting in his political awakening and a devastating act of rebellion. Tabucchi's celebrated masterpiece is an ode to courage and solidarity in the face of political oppression.'A stunningly good novel, and it goes on getting better in one's head after one has stopped reading it - it works as an experience - something that has happened to one, which is of course the proof of great writing' Diana Athill

The short story collection that launched Tabucchi to fame, reflecting on the uncertainties, memories, mistakes and mysteries of life Eleven short stories pivoting on life's ambiguities and the central question they pose in Tabucchi's fiction: is it choice, fate, accident, or even, occasionally, a kind of magic that plays a decisive role in the protagonists' lives? Set in Paris, Lisbon, Madras and New York and blended with the author's wonderfully intelligent imagination, Tabucchi reflects on the elemental aspects of the human experience, exploring grief, uncertainty, adventure, memory and love. 'One of the most admired Italian writers of his generation' The Times

In Stories with Pictures, Antonio Tabucchi responds to photographs, drawings, and paintings from his dual homelands of Italy and Portugal, among other European countries. The stories in this collection spring forth from the shadows of Tabucchi's imagination, as he steps into worlds just hidden from view. From inscrutable masks of pre-Columbian gods, stamps of bright parrots and postcars of yellow cities, portraits of devilish Portuguese nuns, the way to these remote landscapes appear like a 'train emerging from a thick curtain of heat.'

Message From the Shadows is a new collection featuring Antonio Tabucchi's finest short stories, spanning the breadth of his career. These playful tales explore Tabucchi's signature themes, from his inventive, lyrical meditations on language, art, and philosophy, to his fascination with the passage of time, and the mystery of storytelling.

Winner of the 2018 Italian Prose in Translation Award A metaphysical detective story about love and existence from the Italian master, Antonio Tabucchi. When Tadeus sets out to find Isabel, his former love, he soon finds himself on a metaphysical journey across the world, one that calls into question the meaning of time and existence and the power of words. Isabel disappeared many years ago. Tadeus Slowacki, a Polish writer, her former friend and lover, has come back to Lisbon to learn of her whereabouts. Rumors abound: Isabel died in prison under Salazar's regime, or perhaps wasn't arrested at all. As Tadeus interviews one old acquaintance of hers after the next, a chameleon-like portrait of a young, ideological woman emerges, ultimately bringing Tadeus on a metaphysical journey across the continent. Constructed in the form of a mandala, For Isabel is the spiraling search for an enigma, an investigation into time and existence, the power of words, and the limits of the senses. In this posthumous work Tabucchi creates an ingenious narration, tracing circles around a lost woman and the ultimate inaccessible truth.

Dr. Pereira is an aging, lonely, overweight journalist who has failed to notice the menacing cloud of fascism over Salazarist Lisbon. One day he meets Montiero Rossi, an aspiring young writer whose anti-fascist fervor is as strong as Pereira's apolitical languor. Eventually, breaking out of the shell of his own inhibitions, Pereira reluctantly rises to heroism--and this arc is "one of the most intriguing and appealing character studies in recent European fiction" (Kirkus).

Late on night, the body of a young man is delivered to the morgue of an Italian town. The next day's newspapers report that he was killed in a police raid, and that went by the obviously false name "Carlo Nobodi." Spino, the morgue attendant on duty at the time, becomes obsessed with tracing the identity of the corpse. "Why do you want to know about him?" asks a local priest. "Because he is dead and I'm alive," replies Spino. In this spare yet densely packed cautionary tale, Tabucchi reminds us that it is impossible to reach the edge of the horizon since it always recedes before us, but suggests that some people "carry the horizon with them in their eyes."

'A lot of people lose their way in India . . . it's a country specially made for that.'Amid the backstreets, brothels and faded hotels of Bombay, Madras and the old Portuguese port of Goa, a man searches for his lost friend. Xavier has been missing for a year, and the only clues to his disappearance lie with an overworked doctor, a young prostitute and the leader of a strange religious order. Dreamlike, elusive and profoundly disquieting, Indian Nocturne calls into question the very nature of identity.

"Hypokondri, sömnlöshet och plågor är dessa korta texters ofärdiga musor", skriver Tabucchi i inledningen till de berättelser som utgör den lilla samlingen "Fra Angelicos bevingade varelser." I dessa texter finns, i form av kvasiberättelser, det brus som ledsagat och alltjämt ledsagar mig: impulser, humörväxlingar, ekonomiska hänrckningar, verkliga eller inbillade sinnesrörelser, illvilja och längtan. "Beato Angelicos flygande varelser är den första titeln i en ny serie tillägnad nutida italiensk litteratur. Den öppnar dörrarna till en fascinerande berättarvärld där gränserna mellan verklighet och fiktion, drömmar och litterära ekon suddas ut och förvandlas till svindlande drömbilder.

Eine der geheimnisvollsten Figuren der Weltliteratur, der bedeutendste portugiesische Lyriker dieses Jahrhunderts, ein unscheinbarer Angestellter, der in seiner Freizeit Gedichte schrieb: mit diesem Mann beschäftigt sich Tabucchi seit vielen Jahren. Die Texte des vorliegenden Bandes versuchen, dem Rätsel dieses Dichters auf die Spur zu kommen, der sich zeitlebens unter einer Vielzahl von Heteronymen versteckt hat.

While waiting for a private midnight assignation on a quay by the Tagus, the narrator spend his day, enjoying a series of chance encounters with such colorful characters as a young junky, a gypsy, a lost taxi driver, the ghost of the long dead poet Fernando Pessoa, and many others, both real and imaginary as he makes his way around Lisbon. Reprint.