Why a Booktrail?
1974: The Return of the Caravels is a powerful indictment of Portuguese colonialism.
The Return of the Caravels
What you need to know before your trail
The Return of the Caravels is a powerful indictment of Portuguese colonialism. Set in Lisbon as Portugal’s African colonies gain their independence in the mid-1970s, Antunes imagines Vasco da Gama and other heroes of Portuguese explorations beached amid the detritus of the empire’s collapse. Or is it the modern colonials — with their mixed-race heritage and uneasy place in the “fatherland” — who have somehow ended up in sixteenth-century Lisbon? As da Gama begins winning back ownership of Lisbon piece by piece in crooked card games, four hundred years of Portuguese history mingle — the caravels dock next to Iraqi oil tankers, and the slave trade rubs shoulders with the duty-free shops. The Return of the Caravels is a startling and uncompromising look at one of Europe’s great colonial powers, and how the era of conquest reshaped not just Portugal but the world.
Travel Guide
Lisbon as a city of contrasts and contradiction:
“The taxi dropped us off beside the Tagus on a strip of sand called Belem, according to what could be read on the nearby train stop with a scale on one side and a urinal on the other, and he caught sight of hundreds of people and teams of oxen that were bringing stone blocks fora huge building, led by squires in scarlet habits, indifferent to the taxis, the vans with American divorcees and Spanish priests and the nearsighted Japanese who were taking picture of everything, chatting in their sharp-beaked samurai tongue”
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Return of the Caravels
Author/Guide: Antonio Lobo Antunes Destination: Lisbon Departure Time: 1974
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