Salvação: timeless emotions in an age gone by
Ana Cristina Silva – a teacher, writer, explorer of emotions, was at Librebook on 18th of May to present her latest book – Salvação (Salvation). Born in Lisbon, she has a PhD in Educational Psychology, is a researcher and lecturer at ISPA-IU and is the author of acclaimed books like Mariana, All the Letters, the Fires of the Inquisition or Chronicle of the King-Poet Al-Mu’Tamid.
Currently a university professor at ISPA-IU with a PhD in Psychology of Education, her specialization in the area of reading and writing learning has leant her great depth to her stories. Defining herself as an author of reflection rather than action, her writing ranges from the historical novel to the psychological novel, from the fascination with the historical characters to the analysis of the conflicts that fill the inner world of the characters.
Her previous novel “The Night Is Not Eternal” addresses the social, political and human reality of Romanian children and their families in the communist period of Nicolae Ceausescu – and in 2017, was the unanimous choice of the jury of the Prize Literary Fernando Namora.
Salvação explores love lost and suffering through the death of a cherished relation. This insurmountable pain throws the protagonist to find an outlet in his writing of a historical novel. The main character, David Negro, is a Jewish doctor who has to flee Lisbon after the woman’s condemnation by the Inquisition.
The world created is an extraordinary fresco of 17th century Lisbon, Amsterdam and Hamburg, weaving a detailed tapestry which allows some of the great figures of the era like the philosopher Uriel da Costa, doctor Rodrigo de Castro or the merchant Diogo Sampaio, to appear. this book is still a portrait of society today, with its ancestral concerns (loss, guilt, redemption), but also with new challenges, such as the self-proclaimed Islamic State.
Intimate and engaging romance, Salvation is an intense work on the ability to re-believe, the redemption that writing allows, and the fanaticism of the great religions. But it is also, and above all, the confirmation of Ana Cristina Silva as one of the most original and powerful writers of the day.
Good to know:
- Salvação is available at Librebook.
- Address: Chaussée de Wavre 128 – 1050 – Brussels
