History, Fiction and Memory(ies) in João de Melo’s Livro de Vozes e Sombras

Abstract

Published in June 2020, João de Melo's Livro de vozes e sombras is part of a fertile literary trend that has, in recent years, provided possible new readings of the 1974 revolutionary period. The three stories that make up the plot of the novel, intrinsically related to each other, represent a milestone in contemporary narrative, due to the author's ability to give a voice to both the victims and the perpetrators of the events of the Hot Summer of 1975. Set in the Azores, Lisbon and Angola, João de Melo’s Livro reveals and interprets the origins of the Frente de Libertação dos Açores independence movement, the violent actions perpetrated against the population for their ideological positions, and the consequences of Portuguese decolonization in Africa through the testimony of a blind girl who suddenly becomes a returnee. Literary fiction is thus postulated as a solid base for the configuration of a collective memory that includes all sensibilities, each one with its rifts and contradictions.