José Luís Peixoto

Biography

José Luis Peixoto was born in a small village from the south interior of Portugal, in the Portuguese region of Alentejo. He finished a degree on Modern Languages and Literature in the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Was a teacher for some years in Portugal and in Cabo Verde before becoming a professional writer in 2001.

Awards

International Editions

Reception

'Peixoto is one of the most surprising revelations in recent Portuguese literature. I have no doubts that he is the safe promise of a great writer' – José Saramago

‘Peixoto has an extraordinary way of perceiving, conveyed in his original choices of language and imagery’ – Times Literary Supplement

“Splendidly demanding.... The images Peixoto evokes in helping his characters communicate without words are singular and unforgettable.... Nature appears to prevail as the governing force, and Peixoto's brilliance and power as an artist are precisely in his desire to mimic nature's ability to create and destroy simultaneously.”—San Francisco Chronicle"

“Peixoto offers an appealing addition to the genre of rural magical realism…. [A] poignant debut."—Kirkus Reviews

“You read and breathe as if you were downing a bottle of life in one gulp.”—Le Figaro (about Blank Gaze)

‘Peixoto has an acute ear for cadence, a sharp eye for the luminous image and a good nose for the pungent’ – Independent

'Peixoto's evocation of pathos is tempered by a keen sense of the absurd' – Financial Times

“Peixoto comes from the world of poetry and of the theatre. And this can be sensed here. His pages, purified in the lyrical prose that makes them unique, introduce us to a rural space burned by the sun, inhabited by the singing of the cicadas and suspended in a mythical time where each action has a biblical inevitability.”—Vogue Italia