Uma Outra Voz is a novel of many voices. Distinct, individual and standalone yet interconnected. It is inspired by a real family history and the common thread is the story of João José Mariano Serrão (real name João Francisco Carreço Simões). Although a bachelor, Uncle Mariano was almost the family patriarch, playing an important and often fatherly role in many of his relatives’ lives, as well as being a key figure in developing Estremoz and in its elevation to city status. The diary extracts in Part II of the novel are from his travels to colonial Angola and four of the five Voices in Part I are family members, and the fifth a lover. Also included are some poetry, photography and extracts from newspapers, including the real-life Uncle Mariano’s obituary.
In 2013 this novel won the Prémio LeYa, one of Portugal’s foremost and most lucrative literary prizes, which awards prize money and publication via its own imprint of a previously unpublished work submitted anonymously. The standard is set so high that twice the judging panel have withheld the award. Gabriela Ruivo Trindade was the first woman to win the prize. The novel also won the 2015 PEN Clube Português prize for a first work and was published in Brazil for the first time in June 2018 by LeYa Brasil.
As referred to above, this novel has two parts and in Part I there are five Voices. The first of these belongs to young Zé, a boy who struggles to control his laughter at inopportune moments and likes to spy on naked women. His tales of childhood misadventures function well as a scene-setting chapter as we are introduced to key characters, such as his sister and mother, who we will hear from later, as well as Uncle Mariano, and to themes which will recur, like the mystery of who his father might be.
The Second Voice is that of Lídia Maria Serrão, a young woman of twenty-two years of age on the day of her wedding. She recalls her childhood when she fell for her husband-to-be and how the family and town came together for the funeral of Uncle Mariano. She also tells of her relationship with other family members and the housekeeper’s daughter. We meet, too, the local priest, who will have an important part to play in this family’s story.
The Third Voice is the only one in the novel that does not directly mention Uncle Mariano, yet it does elaborate the histories of other family members and recounts an important time in Portuguese history. The voice is that of Álvaro Manuel Silvino, second cousin to the aforementioned Lídia and Zé. He is twenty-four years old and has been paralysed from the waist down after being shot by the police at a counter-protest against a fascist demonstration. This is based on real events that took place in Lisbon on 10 June 1978 when another antifascist was also injured and a third was killed. As well as recalling that tragic day, he also recounts what it was like to be in Lisbon during the Carnation Revolution on 25 April 1974. He talks of various family members, including Zé, previously seen as Lídia’s immature younger brother, who is at this point a doctor. His tale is a painful one, not only of physical hardship but of existential doubts unrequited love.
The Fourth Voice belongs to Maria Filomena Alecrim, mother to Lídia and Zé. She is a broken and ill woman following Zé’s departure to the Portuguese Colonial War in Angola. She recounts raising her children as a single mother, how she came to have Zé and Lídia, and of how as a young girl she fell for a boy destined for priesthood. She also talks of having been raised by Uncle Mariano and his sister Aunt Vitória following the death of her mother and the huge impact the former’s decision to leave without warning for Angola had on all of them.
The Fifth Voice is Ana’s. She was a prostitute and Uncle Mariano’s lover. From her death bed she looks back on her life, including growing up in brothels and how João (Uncle Mariano) entered and reappeared in her life and eventually tried to persuade her to run away to Angola with him when she recovered. Their relationship was secretive and complicated by a multitude of factors, social and political. She is tormented by regret and desire to confess before a priest, conscious that her time is up.
In Part II of the novel we finally hear directly from Uncle Mariano, through fragments of his diary that were rescued from the ashes of a fire. The extracts begin with him setting sail for Angola and end with his decision to return. His love for Ana (now deceased), to whom the diary is addressed, is immediately and painfully evident. He also explains his reasons for leaving and we discover more about this character who in the first four Voices hadn’t been so prominent. His influence in the family is attested to earlier but it is in the Fifth Voice and his own diary entries that we learn about João’s personal life. Like Ana, he has regrets and seeks forgiveness.
Though primarily family history, with the rumblings of Portuguese history generally a background noise, if audible at all, to the universal themes of love, pain and sacrifice which are a constant throughout, the novel does span a large part of the 20th century and therefore some crucial moments in the nation’s story. We hear about the Carnation Revolution, which overthrew the Estado Novo dictatorship, and the link to Angola is a reminder that Portugal had a number of colonies in Africa who in the sixties and seventies were fighting for their independence. Portugal's right-wing dictatorship had lasted since 1926 following a coup d’état ending the First Portuguese Republic, established in 1910 by revolution. Uncle Mariano (1862-1954) was a firm republican and indeed it was he who delivered the news of the proclamation of the Republic in Estremoz, the telegram having been addressed to him.
At a time when we hear much about the growth of populist right-wing movements across the globe, this is a pertinent reminder that Europe has already been there and should have learnt the lessons. What happened in Germany is well known, and to a lesser extent the same can be said of Italy and Spain, but Salazar’s Estado Novo dictatorship in Portugal is a lesser-told story. This novel is not a treatment of the dictatorship as such, but its presence lurks as a reminder of that chapter of Portuguese history, particularly in the Third Voice and the clandestine meetings Álvaro attends and the way his comrades are imprisoned or have their homes and shops ransacked.
Uma Outra Voz is a highly original, innovative and rich work of literary fiction. Its clever blend of the collective and the individual – the family story and the personal story, the history of a nation and the lives of ordinary people – ensures that it is compelling, relatable and deeply human. It is a strength of the book that each voice is at once self-contained and important to the novel as a whole. They have their own separate identities, but through each is woven the thread that binds the novel together and only read as a set do we see the full picture. Running themes, stories and intrigues crop up across the different voices and we are given different perspectives on certain events. As we proceed, we can put together the pieces of the overall puzzle and come to understand that it takes many voices to tell a story.
Author Bio
Gabriela Ruivo Trindade was born in Lisbon in 1970. She studied psychology and lives in London. In 2013 she won the LeYa Prize with her first novel Uma Outra Voz, published in April 2014, which was later awarded the PEN Clube Português prize for a first work (ex-aequo) in 2015. Her children’s story A Vaca Leitora was published in March 2016 by D. Quixote. She was featured in the poetry anthology I Antologia de Poetas na Diáspora (Oxalá, 2016) and in the collection of emigration stories Homens Que Sofrem de Sonhos (Oxalá, 2018). She manages the online bookshop Miúda, which is based in London and specialises in children’s literature written in Portuguese (www.miudabooks.co.uk). Uma Outra Voz was published in Brazil in June 2018 by LeYa Brazil.