EUROPEAN BOOK CLUB

A EUNIC event

Camões Toronto presents a book by José Luís Peixoto: The Piano Cemetery – Cemitério de Pianos

Camões Toronto, along with EUNIC, the network of the European cultural institutes of Toronto, formed by Alliance Française, British Council, Goethe-Institut Toronto, Italian Cultural Istitute, and Camões Toronto, invites you to their book club meeting for the presentation and discussion of The Piano Cemetery (Cemitério de Pianos) by José Luís Peixoto, led by Maria João Dodman.

The European Book Club meets periodically in a different cultural institute to discuss a European contemporary book translated into English.

The Piano Cemetery is the story of the Lázaro family who are carpenters and who would rather be piano-makers. In the dusty back room of their carpentry shop in Lisbon is the “piano cemetery”, filled with broken-down pianos that provide the spare parts needed for repairing and rebuilding instruments all over the city. It is a mysterious and magical place, a place of solace and, above all, a trysting place for lovers. Peixoto weaves the tragic true story of the marathon-runner, Francisco Lázaro, into a rich narrative of love, betrayal, domestic happiness and dashed hopes.

Biographies

José Luis Peixoto was born in 1974 and has already written over ten works of literature (fiction, poetry and plays), as well as writing literary journalism and song lyrics for bands. In 2001 he won the José Saramago Prize with his novel Nenhum Olhar (Blank Gaze). Blank Gaze was his first novel published in English and was selected by the Financial Times as one of their best books of 2007. The Piano Cemetery followed in English at the end of 2010. His recent novel Livro (Book) went straight to the top of the bestseller lists in Portugal upon publication in September 2010.

Maria João Dodman is an Assistant Professor at York University’s Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics. She is a native of the Azores, Portugal, and she has lived in Canada since 1989. She has taught Spanish and Portuguese language and literature in several Ontario institutions before coming to York University where she is Assistant Professor since 2008.