ABSTRACT
The Portuguese literary scene was so narrow and stingy that even the novels against the regime were mostly boring pamphlets, as moralistic and apologetic as the flos sanctorum, the lives of the saints. It was not until 1974, with the April Revolution, also known as Carnation Revolution, that Portugal rediscovered its almost forgotten freedom of expression. Agustina Bessa-Luís is a prolific and faithful portrayer of the north of Portugal. One of the phenomena of the seventies was the increasing number of women writers, whose quantity and quality is astonishing in a Latin and, presumably, macho country. Mozambique is also very much present in two novels by Helder Macedo, who was born in South Africa and grew up in Mozambique. Well established as a poet, scholar, and translator, his recent career as a novelist was a happy surprise, and received critical acclaim.
