Novel
When the Wolves Howl
Quando os Lobos Uivam
Aquilino Ribeiro · 1958
Synopsis
One March evening, Manuel Louvadeus returns to Arcabuzais, his village in the serra dos Milhafres, in Beira Alta, after ten years of emigration to Brazil, without a fortune but educated through books. His daughter tells him that the State has decided to afforest the communal lands of the mountain, where the villagers graze their animals and gather the wood and heather they live on. Fear takes hold in the villages, and this man with a keen sense of justice takes the side of his own people against the Forestry Services.
Context
The novel appeared in 1958. The regime judged it insulting to the institutions: the book was seized and its author, who was seventy-three, was prosecuted in March 1959. About three hundred Portuguese intellectuals signed a petition asking for the proceedings to be dropped, and, outside Portugal, François Mauriac came to his defence; in Brazil an edition of the novel appeared with a preface by Adolfo Casais Monteiro. The subject matter is a real conflict, the afforestation of the common mountain lands by the Services forestiers of the Estado Novo. Translated into English in 1963, the novel gave rise in 2006 to a Portuguese television series.
Who it is for
A novel translated into French by Albin Michel; the conflict over the baldios, the communal pastures, is its very subject, and the language, rich in regional words, calls for a little attention.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the author's best-known novel, and the one through which he is read outside Portugal.
Sources for this page 12
The pages consulted to check this page.