New Tales in the Style of Porto - Miguel Miranda

New Tales in the Style of Porto

Miguel Miranda (Camilo Castelo Branco Grand Prize for Short Stories – APE) returns to short narrative with New Tales in the Style of Porto. This collection of fictions exhibits surrealist traits and, simultaneously, a great verisimilitude that borders on hyper-realism. As a result, the reader is masterfully transported to a certain Porto in transformation.

The plot unfolds throughout the city, recounting its places, its built heritage and, above all, its people. It is an emotional itinerary through the intricate paths of the Invicta, from the most known and iconic to the less talked about and no less picturesque; an itinerary that the book itself makes available to the most curious so that they can complement their reading with the enjoyment of the evoked places. Along the way, certain bars, cafés and taverns of Porto are also visited: those that still survive, others that are only history, and still others already threatened by "progress". The pleiad of places, traditions and beliefs, the people of Porto are portraits and memory of this enigmatic and beautiful Porto that has served as a backdrop for much of the author's work. To enrich the experience, the book includes photographs by Libório Manuel Silva – a name of undeniable importance in Portugal's cultural heritage – whose visual records subtly converse with the narrative, elevating the work to a true object of contemplation.

«Miguel Miranda's writing is lean and winged, sometimes dizzying», as Fernando Venâncio referred to it. The characters are credible, though improbable. The endings are surprising, some surreal, all bizarre. And as Manuel António Pina said about his stories: «The story that each tale tells is rarely the one on display; it is rather the other story that, beneath the narrated story, pulses like an underground stream, flowing between the circumstances and episodes of the narration.»

Work details

• Author: Miguel Miranda
• Publisher: Centro Atlântico
• Category: Travel and Holidays
• Number of pages: 120
• Cover: Hardcover