Book, Thirty-third of August[LS]

Life, each life, even the one that always seems so similar to itself and so many others, finds in the Portuguese author Raquel Laranjeira Pais a meticulous portraitist. All of his stories contain a hint or more of distress. Moments of crisis and moments of liberation. In a way, and in a syntax, very Portuguese and very Brazilian, the characters seek to make sense primarily for themselves. Almost always female, they try to make their way – or understand where they went off the right path – in an urban jungle of domesticated plants and undomesticated animals. There are many different animals in Raquel's stories and they are all involuntary and indifferent characters in the human drama. But indifference is one of the sensations that the reader of this book will not have.