Love the title, love the book. Sadly, I don't remember who pointed me in the direction of the author, Antonio Lobo Antunes, but thank you. If it were New Year's Day, my resolution would be to read everything the author has written that's been translated into English. Sadly I can't read Portuguese, I'm not even sure how to pronounce the place names or character names so I fall back on my high school Spanish and Latin. Kudos to translator Richard Zenith for his graceful rendering because this book reads as though the author wrote it in English. I think there's an award for translations of novels -- if so I'd nominate this book.
Antonio Lobo Antunes is a lifelong native of Lisbon; he's a psychiatrist which possibly explains The Natural Order of Things' exploration of memory, points of view and mental illness. The River Tagus, the Atlantic Ocean, the weather, the topography of the city, the residents - be they from families that have lived in Lisbon for generations or newcomers from the countryside or North Africa - and, the changes time has wrought in the city and its environs shape this book.
Determining who is speaking and to whom the speaker addresses his or her comments is part of the enjoyment of the book. My favorite books describe their locales - whether real or imaginary - in a sensate fashion; if you also enjoy envisioning cityscapes and landscapes, hearing the sounds and smelling they smells, The Natural Order of Things is well worth the time you'll want to spend reading it.
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