13 Questions for João Reis

João Reis is a Portuguese writer and literary translator. His books are published in Portugal, the USA, Brazil, Serbia, and Georgia. He writes both in Portuguese and English.

His first work published in English was The Translator’s Bride. His novel Bedraggling Grandma with Russian Snow was longlisted for the 2022 Dublin Literary Award.

You can also find two of his recent works published in English: The Devastation of Silence (longlisted for Prémio Oceanos 2019, published in English in November 2022) and An Atavic Fear of Hailstorms (2023).

João, self-portrait

What are you reading currently and why? 

The Time of Miracles by Borislav Pekić because I love Pekić's books.

What book(s) most altered your taste in literature? 

I would say Cèline's Journey to the End of the Night and Hamsun's Hunger. Later on, Ričardas Gavelis's Vilnius Poker.

Describe the last time a work of literature affected you physically.

Most works I translate nauseate me, so I face continuing agony and never-ending displeasure from my contact with some books. Gladly, the books I like and read for pleasure often make me laugh.

Please share a passage from the book nearest at hand.

"Så tok musikeren sin bør på ryggen igjen og de to nikket til Edevart og vandret nordover til næste grænd." (in Landstrykere, by Knut Hamsun, translated into English as Wayfarers)

How do you treat the books you read?

I treat them very well. I neither underline anything nor scribble in the margins. Dogear? Never. I use a simple bookmark, and that's it. I usually don't note down passages from books.

What quality do you most appreciate in a novel? 

An inventive sense of humour. Style is important, but I can't stand authors who take themselves too seriously.

Who is an author you feel should be more widely read?

I will give you two: Borislav Pekić and Gert Hofmann. Both were geniuses (in different ways), but both are quite forgotten or not as read as they should be. I think Hofmann is even less read nowadays than Pekić, which is a deep shame and says much about today's literary tastes.

What book are you avoiding reading?

No book in particular, since I usually follow my whims when choosing my next read, But maybe I'm putting a few books by Gert Hofmann off, besides Pekić's La Rabia (yes, I have to read that one in Spanish).

What book do you find overrated/overvalued? 

I could give you a long list of overrated books and authors, but let's stick to Knausgård. All his books - which, by the way, keep getting worse and worse - are overvalued, in my honest opinion. It baffles me how readers of fine literature see this guy as a beacon of writing.

What book would you like to be the last one you read before you shuffle off this mortal coil? 

I don't know. As I tend to prefer nihilistic literature, I may be reading something suitable in my moment of departure... and I haven't lived my life in Christ! Oh dear.

If you were to design a literature course around a singular word, what word would that be and what three books might appear on the reading list? 

I think I might centre the course around the term dystopia, and as for the books, I would pick Tatyana Tolstaya's The Slynx; Antoine Volodine's Radiant Terminus, and Dalia Grinkevičiūtė's Shadows on the Tundra. The last one is not a dystopia, but it's a clear example of how real events can be much gloomier and terrifying than fiction. And look, all three have something in common: all of them are set in a Soviet background. Thinking of that, I would add an extra book to the course - Ričardas Gavelis's Vilnius Poker.

In what character in literature do you most recognize yourself?

In the nameless Hunger's narrator and main character, I guess. I share a lot of Hamsun's psychology, it's a bit eerie. And not exactly an advantage in 2024.

Why read literature?

I've always taken reading as something pleasurable and natural, so perhaps the question should be "Why do some people don't like to read literature?" But I know perfectly well that most people will never read a single book in their lives and will never feel any need to do it, so I can try and give you a reason to read: reading literature is the only way to penetrate other people's minds and feelings, to know other realities, landscapes from different places and times, and also of entertaining your intellect with a relatively cheap and not-totally controlled mean of culture.