Why a Booktrail?
1900s: The Piano Cemetery is inspired by the true story of the Portuguese marathon-runner, Francisco Lazaro
The Piano Cemetery
What you need to know before your trail
Set in the working-class district of Benfica in Lisbon, there is a carpenter’s shop known as the ‘piano cemetery’ since it is piled high with broken-down pianos. However this cemetery contains real dreams instead of buried ones.
For in this shop, the Lazaro family work although Francisco dreams of running a marathon, and he takes part in the famous Stockholm marathon after preparing and training hard. His father also called Francisco narrates the story of the day of the marathon and the tragedy which followed.
The true story of an ordinary family in an extraordinary situation.
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Oh the idea of a piano cemetery caught our eye straight away – like the Cemetery of Books in Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s books, the piano cemetery had a nice ring to it too.
“The morning light doesn’t feel the clean window-panes as it passes through them, coming to rest of the notes of the piano..”
The cemetery is not the main setting really however as it acts as a springboard for the real story of a man trying to challenge himself and run in the Stockholm Olympics. Lázaro was Portugal’s best long distance runner at the time of the 1912 Olympics. It was very hot in Stockholm that day but he was used to running in hot temperatures and greased up his body to improve performance even more and to protect from sunburn.
However this meant that his body was unable to cool down and he collapsed. He was taken to Seraphim hospital where he sadly died. There is a monument to him at the marathon’s turning point at Sollentuna.
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