The Sun Horse / O cavalo de sol
A novel set in the 1920s, when heterosexuality was constrained by every kind of convention and homosexuality was both a social taboo and a crime under the law.
Written in visceral, razor-sharp and intensely sensual prose, it follows a body moving, in an increasingly accelerated rhythm, toward the discovery of itself and of the world.
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One of the finest novels of the current literary season.
PEDRO ALVIM, DIÁRIO DE LISBOA
We believe we are faced here with the most important and brilliant work of Portuguese narrative fiction this year: a striking demonstration of virtuosity in novel-writing, an exceptionally successful combination of a masterful command of language and of the discursive structures of fiction.
JOSÉ EMÍLIO NELSON, JORNAL DE NOTÍCIAS
From high on her horse, Vitória dreams of her cousin Jerónimo, whom she is to marry in a few months. Vitória is fascinating, unpredictable, and as she rides into the wind, pushing further and further against those around her, Jerónimo takes refuge in hunting, the arena where he can dominate his prey. The feast day approaches. Vitória clears the final obstacle and abandons Jerónimo. The celebration flees before the drama.
A strange novel, built to the rhythm of the horse’s gaits and the hammering of the heartbeat. While evoking the nostalgic atmosphere of a Portuguese family, the author skilfully stages the difficulties of human relationships in love, in a world “where nothing coincides with anything, where things are never equal to the idea we had of them.” Very quickly, the reader is carried away by the cadence of this brilliantly written story, in which the unreality of dreams, the violence of passion, and the unbridled struggle for the truth of things are woven together with great virtuosity.
NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHIQUES
The author wields lyricism at a gallop.
L’HUMANITÉ
Michel Leiris likened literature to bullfighting. Teolinda Gersão binds it to horsemanship in this unusual novelistic cavalcade. To the rhythm of equestrian time – walk, trot, gallop and jump – unfolds a struggle for passion and power, magnificently sustained by a prose that wonderfully evokes the sensual inertia of Portugal in the 1920s.
CONTEMPORAINE
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Le Cheval de Soleil, transl. by Geneviève Leibrich, Paris, Flammarion, 1992
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Prémio P.E.N. Clube Português de Narrativa, 1989
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A casa de cabeça de cavalo
Um romance situado na 3.ª década do século XX, quando a heterossexualidade era reprimida por toda a espécie de convenções, e a homossexualidade tabu social e crime perante a lei.
Uma escrita visceral, acutilante e sensualíssima, em que o corpo avança, num ritmo progressivamente acelerado, para a descoberta de si próprio e do mundo.