Irene Kacandes, The Dartmouth Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature
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Pereira Mountains is in a new English edition and mentioned by Barnes in Levels of Life. This is a real authors’ book for its seeming simplicity and uncanny depth (there are endorsements on the cover from authors as diverse as Philip Pullman, Mohsin Hamid, and John Carey). Set in Lisbon in 1938, it deals with the rise of fascism in Portugal, which I didn’t know much about. At its heart, like Levels of Life, it explores the kind of bond of love that simply never dissolves.