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Homecoming

Homecoming

$21.00

By José Luís Peixoto
Translated from the Portuguese by Hugo Dos Santos

A poignant meditation on isolation, grief, and kinship by one of the most celebrated voices in Portuguese literature.

In his latest collection of poetry, José Luís Peixoto, writing from the confines of his home during the height of the pandemic, embarks on a journey through his memories. Captured in a deft translation by Hugo Dos Santos, Homecoming is a tender evocation of a familiar world — a world of friends and family, beloved pets, small villages and busy streets — suspended in time. Like Ulysses on a perpetual voyage, Peixoto explores the essence of a room’s four walls and turns his gaze inward, journeying to places near and far but always leading back to the heart of it all: home. Memories serve as guiding stars; he recalls moments from his childhood, his time spent writing and collaborating with translators, and the freedom he once had to travel.

These poems evoke the gravity of life without falling into despair. In turns sombre, joyful, tender, and elegiac, the journey ends with the last poem that gives this work its name, Homecoming. “Here I am again. Ready for Sunday dinner.”

JOSÉ LUÍS PEIXOTO is one of the most acclaimed and successful authors of contemporary Portuguese literature. A poet, playwright, and novelist, he has received numerous awards for his writing including the prestigious José Saramago Literary Award. His works have been published in more than thirty languages.

Publication date: July 23, 2024

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Price: $21.00 CDN
JULY 2024
ISBN: 9781777626440
Softcover / 116 pages / 13.8 x 21.6 cm (5.5″ x 8.5″)
Poetry

About the Author
José Luís Peixoto was born in Galveias in the Alentejo region of Portugal and received a degree in Modern Languages and Literature from the Universidade Nova in Lisbon. Peixoto is one of Portugal’s most acclaimed contemporary novelists and has written over twenty books, including novels, poetry collections, travelogues, and two children’s books. His first novel, Nenhum Olhar (published as Blank Gaze in the UK and as The Implacable Order of Things in the US), was shortlisted in all major literary awards in Portugal and won the José Saramago Literary Award. In 2007, his novel Cemitério de Pianos (published as The Piano Cemetery in the UK) won the Calamo Award for the best-translated novel published in Spain. The novel Galveias, published in 2016, received the Oceanos Literature Award, which is given to the best novel written in all Portuguese-speaking countries. His books have been shortlisted for the Portugal Telecom Prize, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Femina Prize. In the realm of poetry achievements, Gaveta de Papéis was presented with the Daniel Faria Award, and A Criança em Ruínas received the Portuguese Society of Authors (Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores) Award. A short story collection, Antídoto, a joint project with the heavy metal band Moonspell, brought in new readers worldwide and was published as Antidote in the US. Peixoto’s first foray into travel literature, Dentro do Segredo: Uma Viagem na Coreia do Norte (Inside the Secret: A Journey in North Korea), was published in 2012. Peixoto has since published a second travelogue about Thailand, O Caminho Imperfeito, and is a contributing columnist to travel magazines in Portugal and Brazil. An anthology of his previous poetry books, A Child in Ruins, was published in the US in 2016.

About the Translator
Born in Lisbon, Hugo Dos Santos is a Luso-American author, editor and translator. He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Disquiet International Literary Program. His translations include A Child in Ruins (Writ Large Press, 2016), a collection of poems by José Luís Peixoto, which was a staff pick at the Paris Review Daily. As an author, Hugo has published Then, There (Spuyten Duyvil, 2019), a collection of Newark stories, of which acclaimed author Katherine Vaz wrote, “[Hugo’s] characters pursue the little freedoms, and the constriction of their dreaming tells us, with artistic force, how terribly we have made one another invisible.” His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and won a Write Well Award, and has appeared or is forthcoming in Barrelhouse, Electric Literature, Hobart, Puerto del Sol, The Common, The Fanzine, and elsewhere. Hugo lives in New Jersey with his wife and three children. Learn more about his work at hugodossantos.com.

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