Requiem: A Hallucination Explained

Requiem: A Hallucination
Cover Artist:Hieronymus Bosch, detail from Triptych of the Temptation of St. Anthony - 1501
Author:Antonio Tabucchi
Title Orig:Requiem: uma alucinação
Translator:Margaret Jull Costa
Country:Portugal
Language:Portuguese
Publisher:Quetzal Editores
Pub Date:1991
English Pub Date:1994
Pages:127
Isbn:972-564-117-5

Requiem: A Hallucination (Portuguese: '''Requiem: uma alucinação''') is a 1991 novel by the Italian writer Antonio Tabucchi. Set in Lisbon, the narrative centres on an Italian author who meets the spirit of a dead Portuguese poet, never named but strongly indicated to be Fernando Pessoa. Tabucchi wrote the book in Portuguese. Alain Tanner directed a 1998 film adaptation, also called .[1]

Publication

The book was first published in Portugal in 1991 through Quetzal Editores. An Italian translation was published through Feltrinelli the year after. New Directions Publishing released an English translation by Margaret Jull Costa from the original Portuguese in 1994.

Reception

The book was reviewed in Publishers Weekly: "Chance encounters, ambivalent symbols, black humor and nonrational events pervade the narrative as Tabucchi's alter-ego meets his father as a young sailor; the ghost of Isabel, a former lover who committed suicide; Tadeus, who may have been the father of the child Isabel was carrying; and other colorful figures, alive and dead. Finally, Tabucchi meets his revered poet friend to discuss Kafka, postmodernism and the future of literature. Winner of the 1991 Italian PEN Prize, this playful bagatelle, translated from the original Portuguese, is partly an homage to Portuguese culture, partly a mellow autobiographical fantasy."[2]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Young. Deborah. 1998-05-17. Requiem. Variety. 2012-01-02.
  2. Web site: Staff writer. 1994-05-16. Requiem: A Hallucination. Publishers Weekly. 2012-01-02.