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Home > Translation > The World Bookshelf > Books > The Return

The Return

Luanda, 1975. The Angolan War of Independence has been raging for at least a decade, but defeat for the Portuguese is now in sight. Thousands of settlers are fleeing back to Portugal to escape the brutality of the Angolan rebels.

Rui is fifteen years old. He has lived in Luanda all his life and has never even visited the far-away homeland – although he has heard many stories. But now his family are finally accepting that they too must return, and Rui is filled with a mixture of excitement and dread at the prospect. But just as they are leaving for the airport, his father is taken away by the rebels, and the family must leave without him…

Author

Dulce Maria Cardoso

Dulce Maria Cardoso

Books

The Return

Dulce Maria Cardoso is a Portuguese writer, who spent her childhood in Luanda, Angola after her parents moved there when she was an infant. Her family returned to Portugal following the Angolan War of Independence in 1975. She studied law at the University of Lisbon and worked as a lawyer before becoming a full-time writer. Her first novel, Campo de Sangue, won the Grand Prize Acontece de Romance, O Meus Sentimentos won the EU Prize for Literature and O Chão dos Pardais won the Portuguese PEN Club Award. The Return is her fourth novel.

Translator

Ángel Gurría-Quintana

Ángel Gurría-Quintana

Books

The Return

Ángel Gurría-Quintana is a translator, journalist and academic. He has reviewed extensively for Financial Times and continues to write for various newspapers and magazines, alongside his work as a literary translator from Spanish and Portuguese. He is also the co-curator of FlipSide Literary Festival, in Suffolk.

Published by

MacLehose Press, 2016
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Luanda, 1975. The Angolan War of Independence has been raging for at least a decade, but defeat for the Portuguese is now in sight. Thousands of settlers are fleeing back to Portugal to escape the brutality of the Angolan rebels.

Rui is fifteen years old. He has lived in Luanda all his life and has never even visited the far-away homeland – although he has heard many stories. But now his family are finally accepting that they too must return, and Rui is filled with a mixture of excitement and dread at the prospect. But just as they are leaving for the airport, his father is taken away by the rebels, and the family must leave without him…

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