António Lobo Antunes (1942-2026)

One cannot talk about literature in Portugal without mentioning António Lobo Antunes. In Portugal, it has become an unavoidable reference. His work is studied in schools and universities, admired by readers and critics, and recognized as one of the pillars of national literature of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Through his books, many Portuguese have found deep reflections on the country’s recent history, on the colonial war, on family, memory and identity.

He was also a chronicler, where he stood out for the unique way in which he portrayed the daily life of Portuguese society over the years, in the pages of newspapers and magazines. In this way, Lobo Antunes was also an author close to the common citizen, who learned to appreciate his writing in the numerous chronicles about everyday life.

But the importance of António Lobo Antunes goes far beyond the borders of Portugal. Translated into dozens of languages and published in several countries, his work has won readers all over the world. When in June 2011 FLAD joined the National Center of Culture in the Disquiet initiative, the name of António Lobo Antunes was an immediate choice to make American and Portuguese-American authors aware of the richness of Portuguese literature.