Rui Couceiro's 'Baiôa sin fecha de muerte' Celebrates One Year in Spanish

In September, it will be one year since the Spanish translation of 'Baiôa sin fecha de muerte' was published by Siruela. This is the debut novel by Portuguese writer Rui Couceiro, who is also a member of the Cultural Council of the Fundação Eça de Queirós and oversees the Contraponto imprint at Bertrand, a publisher associated with a well-known bookstore chain. The novel received the Prémio Manuel de Boaventura and the Pen Club award in Portugal, and has been well received in Spain. The story follows a young man who, due to a chance encounter with a retired neighbor, moves to the fictional Alentejo village of Gorda-e-Feia, where his mother is from. Unemployed, he spends his time helping Joaquim Baiôa restore abandoned houses and getting to know the village's few but colorful inhabitants. The narrative blends realism with magical realism, structured in short chapters. Central to the plot is the research of a deceased doctor who predicted the death dates of all villagers except Baiôa, hence the title. The protagonist, an admitted social media addict, seeks peace and detachment but finds more: encounters with seemingly simple people who reveal unexpected worlds. Couceiro's approach to rural literature offers a third way, neither idealizing nor debunking rural life, but recognizing villages and their residents as rich material for fiction. The novel gains strength as the urban protagonist forgets himself and attends to the extraordinary lives around him.