Tears, Loves and Other Follies/Prantos, amores e outros desvarios
The death of a beloved man; the weeping of a woman who breaks a promise and believes herself punished; a mother, a daughter, and the poisonous scent of acacia trees; a woman who loses herself inside her own dreams; that lift with someone trapped inside; football, a fierce and unforgiving game; seventy-five salmon-coloured roses, tied with a silk ribbon and wrapped in silver paper; male solidarity, the advice of an old man to a boy; an aquamarine that carries a message; not coveting what belongs to others; a web of entanglements, and Alice, who has fallen into a hole from which she will struggle to emerge.
Fourteen extraordinary short stories by one of the most acclaimed and unsettling authors in contemporary literature, who never ceases to surprise us with the sharpness and depth of her writing.
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Teolinda’s writing brings light into our darkness, even as madness lurks at every moment. We find ourselves on the other side of the mirror, peering into our own humanity. In fact, the three nouns in the title of these stories may together signify the entirety of the human condition—both in the imaginary worlds of these characters and in the reality of our own lives.
— Vamberto Freitas, Açoriano Oriental
A remarkable architecture in which planes converge and diverge without definitive closure. A space where there is neither redemption nor punishment, and where, as in any nightmare worthy of the name, nothing ever truly ends. Prantos moves with great dexterity across the vast spectrum of everyday life. From the most turbulent to the seemingly placid, Teolinda’s writing captures the distinct pulse of existence as if it were a single, shared heartbeat.
— Hugo Pinto Santos, Público
An exquisitely refined and mischievous irony, a deeply personal freedom of execution, and an extraordinary variety of registers and narrative voices—all nourished by a prodigious imaginative power.
— Eugénio Lisboa, Jornal de Letras
Teolinda reclaims the short story, placing it within the fascinating realm of demiurgy, weaving imagined plots around lives, relationships, secret desires, losses, disillusionments, resentments, excesses, and perversions. She explores the boundaries of the creative act, intertwining reality and imagination, the event and the possibility of event, the substance of the everyday and the absurd, common sense and madness.
— Clara Rocha, Colóquio/Letras
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Grande Prémio de Conto Camilo Castelo Branco, 2017
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Prantos, amores e outros desvarios
A morte de um homem amado; o pranto de uma mulher que falha uma promessa e se julga castigada; uma mãe, uma filha e o cheiro venenoso das acácias; uma mulher que se extravia dentro dos seus sonhos; aquele elevador com alguém preso lá dentro; o futebol, implacável jogo bravo; setenta e cinco rosas cor de salmão, seguras por um laço de seda e embrulhadas em papel de prata; solidariedade machista, conselhos de um velho a um rapaz; uma água-marinha que traz uma mensagem; não cobiçar as coisas alheias; uma teia de enredos, e a Alice que caiu num buraco do qual dificilmente conseguirá sair.
Catorze contos extraordinários, de uma das autoras mais consagradas e inquietantes da literatura actual, que nunca deixa de nos surpreender com a acutilância e profundidade da sua escrita.