The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo

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New Directions is proud to introduce the masterwork of Cape Verde s greatest living writer, Germano Almeida an ironic and original tragic comedy from a new voice in African literature Everyone in Cape Verde knows Se or da Silva Successful entrepreneur, owner of the island s first automobile, a most serious, upright, and self made businessman, Se or da Silva is the local success story Born an orphan, he never married, he never splurged one good suit was good enough for him and he never wandered from the straight and narrowOr so everyone thoughtBut when Se or da Silva s 387 page Last Will and Testament is read aloud a marathon task on a hot afternoon which exhausts reader after reader there s eye opening news, and not just for the smug nephew so certain of inheriting all Se or da Silva s property. With his will, Se or da Silva leaves a memoir that is a touching web of elaborate self deceptions He desired so ardently to prosper, to be taken seriously, to join perhaps, if they ll have him the exclusive Gr mio country club, and, most of all, to be a good man And yet, shady deals, twists of fate, an illegitimate child such is the lot of poor, self critical Se or da Silva A bit like Calvino s Mr Palomar in his attention to protocol and in his terror of life s passions a bit like Svevo s Zeno a little pompous, a little old fashioned, and often hapless , Se or da Silva moves along a deliciously blurry line between farce and tragedy a self important buffoon becomes a fully human, even tragic, figure in the arc of this hilarious and touching novel translated into Spanish, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, and now, at last, English. Read The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo author Germano Almeida – kino-fada.fr In this novella, a rich businessman, Napumoceno da Silva Araujo, has just died, leaving a surprising will everyone assumed the straitlaced old bachelor led an abstemious life, but it turns out he had his share of sexcapades The book is set in Cape Verde, an island nation off the west coast of Africa, but fittingly perhaps, as the islands were first settled by the Portuguese readslike a Latin American novel than an African one, with its Portuguese names, single paragraphs that span In this novella, a rich businessman, Napumoceno da Silva Araujo, has just died, leaving a surprising will everyone assumed the straitlaced old bachelor led an abstemious life, but it turns out he had his share of sexcapades The book is set in Cape Verde, an island nation off the west coast of Africa, but fittingly perhaps, as the islands were first settled by the Portuguese readslike a Latin American novel than an African one, with its Portuguese names, single paragraphs that span multiple pages, and obsessive focus on OMG SEX The story is told mostly through Napumoceno s eyes, relating ...Senhor Napumoceno da Silva Ara jo s funeral was conducted with great solemnity as befitted a man of his bearing and demeanour Senhor Napumoceno was after all a leading business figure in Mindelo, the archipelago of Cabo Verde The Chief mourner, his nephew Carlos conducted himself with dignity and po...With hesitation, I picked up this book It s on my list of books to read around the world, and this story is set in Cape Verde I m always a bit hesitant when reading works that were translated from Portuguese The stories are fantastical and somewhat romantic, but always lacking They seem incomplete, maybe something got lost in translation In this book by Germano Almeida, we learn that the protagonist Senhor Napumoceno has died His only nephew and business partner Carlos eagerly awaits to With hesitation, I picked up this book It s on my list of books to read around the world, and this story is set in Cape Verde I m alway... The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Ara jo translated from the Portuguese by Sheila Faria Glaser is my book from Cape Verde for the Read The World challenge For those who don t know, Cape Verde is an island nation, an archipelago off the coast of Africa at about the point where the continent projects furthest into the Atlantic It was uninhabited until the Portuguese started using it as a trading port, I learn from Wikipedia, and the population ...One of the joys of my global reading project is learning about countries I ve never had occasion to think about before With a country like Cape Verde, this meant searching my desktop globe to find out where in the world it is As it turns out, Cape Verde is a small group of islands located off the western coast of Africa, just across from Senegal and Mauritania It was formerly a colony of Portugal, so the official language is Portuguese Trying to find a novel from Cape Verde that s been One of the joys of my global reading project is learning about countries I ve never had occasion to think about before With a country like Cape Verde, this meant se...In his final years, did Senhor da Silva Ara jo write his will or his memoir Either way it takes several hours to read and comes as a big shock to his nephew and presumed heir, not to mention something of a scandal in wider Cape Verde society.It is an examination of a life lived, decisions made for good or ill, the consequences of those decisions and a soul laid bare It starts with the story of Senhor da Silva Ara jo s life as he looks back on it, told thematically rather than chronologically, In his final years, did Senhor da Silva Ara jo write his...This book was interesting to me in that it took place in a location with which I was unfamiliar, the Republic of Cape Verde, and it was a style of writing that I had not really read before The first thing I had to do was to find out something about Cape Verde The Republic of Cape Verde is a group of 10 small islands in the central Atlantic Ocean about 350 miles off the coast of Western Africa The islands are volcanic in origin A few of them are fairly flat, and others are rocky with some This book was interesting to me in that it took place in a location with which I was unfamiliar, the Republic of Cape Verde, and it was a style of writing that I had not really read before The first thing I had to do was to find out something about Cape Verde The Republic of Cape Verde is a group of 10 small islands in the central Atlantic Ocean about 350 miles off the coast of Western Africa The islands are volcanic in origin A few of them are fairly flat, and others are rocky with some vegetation, but in general they tend to be dry and not very verdant The native language is Portuguese, and this book was originally written in that language and translated into quite a few other languages prior to being available in English.The islands were uninhabited when discovered by the Portuguese in the 1400 s and became central to the African slave trade The islands were also popular with pirates and were visited by Charles Darwin in 1832 I wonder if he found any interesting species there, as...Bookray www.bookcrossing.com journal 7416296 Received 16th February 2011.I found this a sad story of a man who basically wasted all the chances in his life to find himself happiness by not acting on his feelings, or acting too late He could have married Dona Chica and had a happy family life, but was too worried about his reputation He did chase the lady from Dakar, but she left him with quite another legacy, which he also delayed dealing with He missed his moment with Dona Joia, postponing Bookray www.bookcrossing.com journal 7416296 Received 16th February 2011.I found this a sad story of a man who basically wasted all the chances in his life to find himself happiness by not acting on his feelings, or acting too late He could have married Dona Chica and had a happy family life, but was too worried about his reputation He did chase the lady from Dakar, but she left him with quite another legacy, which he also delayed dealing with He missed his moment with Dona Joia, postponing his letter too long, and being in any case too tentative, and the mysterious Ad lia was not free when he wanted her, and by the t...Though this book is quite short, only about 150 pages, it left me with a lot to think about It tells the life story of one Napumoceno da Silva Araujo, a respected and rich Cape Verdean businessman who died at a very old age and left a shocking will that was over 300 pages long and bequeathed everything to the bastard daughter no one knew he had.The story, particularly in the beginning describing the funeral, is extremely funny in its way It is also notable for showing how various people s Though this book is quite short, only about 150 pages, it left me with a lot to think about It tells the life story of one Napumoceno da Silva Araujo, a respected and rich Cape Verdean businessman who died at a very old age and left a shocking will that was over 300 pages long and bequeathed everything to the bastard daughter no one knew he had.The story, particularly in the beginning describing the funeral, is extremely funny in its way It is also notable for showing how various people s perceptions of the same events can be so different as to be come almost unrecognizable Araujo s nephew, for instance, through his eyes is a slimy, arrogant, deceitful Uriah Heep type character, but his newfound cousin Maria de Graca sees him as a likable enough man who bears no grudge against her,...I found this book when planning a holiday in Cape Verde, and read it whilst away Knowing some basic facts about the country definitely helped contextualise the novel, and being there made it come to life This novel is touching, humorous and thought provoking It explores how we see ourselves versus how others see us by the end of it, I didn t feel I d grasped a truth about the protagonist, Sr Napumoceno da Silva Ara jo, and I suppose that s the point It also left me with a vivid I found this book when planning a holiday in Cape Verde, and read it whilst away Knowing some basic facts about the country definitely helped contextualise the novel, and being there made it come to life This novel ...

The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo
  • English
  • 04 December 2018
  • Paperback
  • 152 pages
  • 0811215652
  • Germano Almeida
  • The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo