Forgotten Treasures: A Symposium

At the risk of sounding paranoid or self-centered, I am constrained to choose as neglected works those novels that I took the time and effort to translate and which no American publisher has seen fit to take on: “Internal War” by Volodia Teitelboim is an oftentimes surrealistic picture of Chile during the bloodthirsty Pinochet tyranny and includes the appearance of Pablo Neruda’s ghost; “My World Is Not of This Kingdom” by Joao de Melo is the story of the inhabitants of a village in the Azores that immediately made me think that I was dealing with another Macondo and its larger-than-life people; “The Return of the Caravels” by Antonio Lobo Antunes is a remarkable tour de force of magic realism in which the author combines the return of Vasco da Gama’s fleet with the repatriation of modern Portuguese colonists from Africa after independence in a skillful mingling of two seemingly disparate periods. These three books explain ever so many moments that might and must not be forgotten. *