7.8 /10 1 Votes
Country Portugal Publisher Quetzal Editores Published in English 1994 Genre Fiction Published in english 1994 | 3.9/5 Goodreads Language Portuguese Publication date 1991 Originally published 1991 Page count 127 Translator Margaret Jull Costa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Original title Requiem: uma alucinação Works by Antonio Tabucchi Indian Nocturne, Letter from Casablanca: Stories, Little Misunderstandings of No Imp, The Missing Head of, Pereira Maintains | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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. Tabucchi wrote the book in Portuguese. Alain Tanner directed a 1998 film adaptation, also called Requiem.
Contents
Publication
The book was first published in Portugal in 1991 through Quetzal Editores. An Italian translation was published the year after through Feltrinelli. 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."