António Lobo Antunes

In a remote ranch in the Trafaria region of Portugal, life passes at a different pace, immune to any external influence. A primitive rural world ruled by the boss’ absolute authority.  The novel begins with the first person narration of the boss’ grandson, an autistic child. He rattles off his terrorific, extremely violent accounts of beings that have lost all humanity and commit terrible crimes. Later, when the boy is committed to a mental sanatorium, the reader discovers that the successive descriptions and scenes are a result of the narrator’s sick mind. But perhaps not everything is fruit of his imagination.