Alves Redol

Biography

Redol was born in Vila Franca de Xira to António Redol da Cruz, shopkeeper, and Inocência Alves Redol. When he was 15 he started publishing articles in the local weekly newspaper Vida Ribatejana. Finishing secondary school in 1927, in the next year travelled to Angola (a Portuguese colony at the time), where he stayed for three years. His stay in Angola was mainly unfruitful but influenced his world view, which later became visible in his literature.

In 1936 he marries Maria dos Santos Mota. Alves Redol works with newspapers identified with the opposition to the Estado Novo: O Diabo and Sol Nascente. November 29, 1936 is published his first collaboration with O Diabo, the short story Kangondo, set in an African ambiance. He will continue writing chronicles and tales, showing to be identified with the social issues of his region, Ribatejo.

Redol would not become known for his work as a journalist though. Instead, he became known for his novels. In 1939 he published his first book, Gaibéus. According to the author, Gaibéus was not intended as a piece of art, but rather as a report of the way of life of peasants in Ribatejo. This novel starts a series of works of fiction depicting the harsh lives of peasants and fishermen in Portugal, in the first half of the 20th century: Gaibéus (1939), Marés (1941), Avieiros (1942) and Fanga (1943).

The publication of Fanga in 1943 coincides with the birth of his only son, António.

The preoccupation of going beyond a writer of novels by being a reporter the real world is one of the main characteristics of Redol's work. Redol used to get in touch with the workers in the agricultural fields, such as the rice fields near Tagus river, and hear their stories and experiences.

In the beginning of the 1940s he joins the Portuguese Communist Party, which was then illegal. Alves Redol is arrested in May 1944. In November 1945 he is included in the Central Committee of the Movement of Democratic Unity (Movimento de Unidade Democrática (M.U.D.)) for which he actively participates in the campaigns for the fake elections held by the Salazar regime.

In 1947 he is nominated Secretary-General of the Portuguese section of the International PEN. In 1948 he participates in the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace, in Wrocław, Poland.

His novel Horizonte Cerrado (1948) is the first volume of a trilogy concerning the Portuguese winemaking region of Douro. Os Homens e as Sombras (1951) and Vindima de Sangue (1953) complete the so-called Port wine cicle.

Alves Redol's later works include A Barca dos Sete Lemes (1958), Uma Fenda na Muralha (1959) and finally Barranco de Cegos (1962), considered the clymax of his work.

A Barca dos Sete Lemes was translated into the English language by Linton Lomas Barrett and published as A Man with Seven Names by Knopf in 1964.

Alves Redol died in Lisbon, in 1969.

Works

Novels

Theatre

Short stories

Children's literature

Essays

Screenplays

Conferences