Guest of the ilb 2007
António Lobo Antunes was born in Lisbon in 1942 and grew up in the Benfica district. His parents belonged to the upper middle classes. He studied medicine in his home city, specialising in psychiatry. From 1971 to 1973, during the colonial war in Angola, he worked as a military doctor. After his return he worked as a psychiatrist at the psychiatric clinic Hospital de Miguel Bombarda in Lisbon. He began writing his first two novels, "Memória de Elefante" (t: Elephant's memory) and "Os Cus de Judas" (Eng. "South of Nowhere", 1983), in 1976. Both were published in 1979 and made their author famous overnight in Portugal. They deal with his experiences in the war and in his professional life, as do many of his later works. He has been a freelance writer since 1985.
Lobo Antunes has been on the cards for a Nobel Prize for years. His novels have an inimitable style; artistic, complex and occasionally labyrinthine in construction, they are characterised by frequent shifts in perspective and pacing. Quite often, events that occur across a broad period of time will be dealt with in a tightly compressed form in the text. His works deal with Portugal in history and today, and concentrate on borderline or unimportant lives. Verena Auffermann summed Lobo Antunes up, commenting that he has "in his own way, understanding politics as human fate, written the social history of Portugal from the colonial war in Angola, through the Salazar dictatorship and the Carnation Revolution of 1975, up to today's prosperity following EU membership".
To date, the author has written over 20 books. Among the most important are "Fado Alexandrino" (1983; Eng. 1990), "As Naus" (1988; Eng. "The Return of the Caravels", 2002) and "Manual dos Inquisidores" (1996; Eng. "The Inquisitor's Manual", 2003). Since 1998 his "Crónicas" - often autobiographical pieces for the Sunday supplement of the Portuguese daily newspaper"Público" and later for the weekly "Visão" - have been appearing in book form. By now there are three volumes. In 2005 his daughters Maria José and Joana published the letters which Lobo Antunes sent to his wife while he was in Angola under the title "D'este viver aqui neste papel descripto: cartas de guerra" (2005; t: Life, written on paper: Letters from the war). A year later his most recent novel, "Ontem não te vi em Babilónia" (t: Yesterday I haven't seen you in Babylon), was published.
Lobo Antunes' works have been translated into more than thirty languages and honoured with numerous prizes and awards, including the Grande Prémio de Romance e Novela of the Portuguese Writers' Association, the Prêmio Franco-Português, the Austrian State Award for European Literature, the Jerusalem Prize, and most recently the Prêmio Camões, the most prestigious prize of the Portuguese-speaking countries. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. Lobo Antunes lives in Lisbon.
© international literature festival berlin
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Memória de Elefante
(Elephant Memories)
Mondadori
Milano, 1979
Os Cus de Judas (1979)
(The Judas Kiss/South of Nowhere)
Random House
New York, 1983
(Tr. Elizabeth Lowe, António Lobo Antunes)
Conhecimento do Inferno (1980)
(Getting to Know the Inferno, Knowledge of Hell)
Dalkey Archive Press
Chicago, 2008
(Tr. Clifford E. Landers)
Explicação dos Pássaros (1981)
(An Explanation of the Birds)
Grove Press
New York, 1995
(Tr. Richard Zenith)
Fado Alexandrino (1983)
Grove Press
New York, 1995
(Tr. Gregory Rabassa)
Auto dos Danados (1985)
(Act of the Damned)
Grove Press
New York, 1996
(Tr. Richard Zenith)
As Naus (1988)
(The Return of the Caravels)
Grove Press
New York, 2003
(Tr. Geregory Rabassa)
Tratado das Paixões da Alma (1990)
(Treaty of the Soul's Passions)
Debolsillo
Barcelona, 2004
A Ordem Natural das Coisas (1992)
(The Natural Order of Things)
Grove Press
New York, 2001
(Tr. Richard Zenith)
A Morte de Carlos Gardel
(The Death of Carlos Gardel)
Dom Quixote
Lisbon, 1994
Manual dos Inquisidores (1996)
(The Inquisitors' Manual)
Grove Press
New York, 2004
(Tr. Richard Zenith)
O Esplendor de Portugal (1997)
(The Splendor of Portugal)
Siruela
Madrid, 2003
Exortação aos Crocodilos (1999)
(Exhortation to the Crocodiles)
Siruela
Madrid, 2000
Não Entres Tão Depressa Nessa Noite Escura
(Don't Go So Fast Into That Dark Night)
Dom Quixote
Lisbon, 2000
Que Farei Quando Tudo Arde? (2001)
(What Can I Do When Everything's on Fire?)
W.W. Norton & Co.
New York, 2008
(Tr. Gregory Rabassa)
Boa Tarde às Coisas Aqui em Baixo
(Good Evening to the Things From Here Below)
Dom Quixote
Lisbon, 2003
Eu Hei-de Amar uma Pedra
(I Shall Love a Stone)
Dom Quixote
Lisbon, 2004
Ontem Não te vi em Babilónia
(Yesterday I Haven't Seen You in Babylon)
Dom Quixote
Lisbon, 2006
O Meu Nome é Legião
(My Name Is Legion)
Dom Quixote
Lisbon, 2007
O Arquipélago da Insónia
(The Archipeligo of Insomnia)
Dom Quixote
Lisbon, 2008
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