The Scent of a Lie [Paperback]

Paulo da Costa (Author)

Book Description

The Scent of a Lie is a magical realist book of twelve inter-connected stories, reminiscent of Gabriel Marquez, Fuentes and Paul Bowles’ Latin American tales. Set in two charismatic towns in Portugal, characters weave in and out of the intertwined stories, which can be read as a novel in fragments. One story from The Scent of a Lie was broadcast on CBC Radio and a second won the 2001 Canongate Prize for short fiction at the International Book Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paulo da Costa was born in Luanda, Angola and raised in Portugal. His writing has been published in literary magazines in Canada and internationally. His work has also been translated to Portuguese, Spanish and Italian. Paulo's first Portuguese poetry collection is forthcoming in Portugal in 2003. He is the editor of Filling Station, a Canadian literary magazine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Ekstasis ed
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1894800079
• ISBN-13: 978-1894800075
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

More About the Author

paulo da costa was born in Angola and raised in Portugal. He is a writer, editor and translator living on the West Coast of Canada. paulo's first book of fiction The Scent of a Lie received the 2003 Commonwealth First Book Prize for the Canada-Caribbean Region and the W. O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize. In Portuguese he has published the poetry book, notas de rodapé and he is the recipient of the ProVerbo Prize. Several audio chapbooks of fiction and poetry are also available in English and Portuguese. His poetry and fiction have been published in literary magazines around the world and have been translated to Italian, Chinese, Spanish, Serbian, Slovenian and Portuguese. www.paulodacosta.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Missing Home, May 27, 2005

By 

Blogging Burt "http://bloggingburt.blog-city.com" (Topeka, Kansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Scent of a Lie (Paperback)

Paulo da Costa was born in Luanda, Angola, the Portuguese Lourenço Marques back then. He moved back to continental Portugal when he was still a young child and Portugal is where he is from in all senses of the word. "The Scent of a Lie" is his only published fiction book to date and it spells "missing home" in every page: Paulo da Costa is a naturalized Canadian citizen.

The book includes a number of short stories all of which take place in Portugal. The stories' plots are intertwined and we keep coming back to the same familiar characters at different times in their lives, coming from different perspectives. This web of characters, places and time make for a very rich fabric, made deeper by the slow ebbing of time. The beginning portrays a poor, isolated region of Portugal as it was one hundred years ago. The last short story takes place in the same area but in more recent times.

The characters brought to life by Paulo da Costa are at once very realistic and somewhat fantasized. The fantasy element causes reviewers and the author to recognize influences from the magical realism of Garcia Marquez and José Saramago. The main character in these short stories is however the Portuguese region of "Beira Litoral", so well painted that if the reader were showed photos of this region, he or she would find them redundant.

This is a book to buy for the good writing, for the detailed portrait of a Portuguese province and for the true to life depiction of people who lived one hundred years ago in some lost villages of Beira. Paulo da Costa is also a fine ironist and his lines will make you smile for the originality of the point of view and for the social criticism of a society founded upon the stiff rules of a structured class system long gone.

It seems the author found his freedom elsewhere and it is this distance that allows him to look back with clarity and insight at his lost country's past and at his own past.

Paulo da Costa writes poetry more that he writes prose but judging from this book, may be he should give fiction a try. I can't help thinking that a full fledged novel would be a major challenge and a major accomplishment.