{"id":102898,"date":"2025-12-20T19:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T19:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/102898\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T19:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T19:42:10","slug":"djaimilia-pereira-de-almeida-on-three-stories-of-forgetting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/102898\/","title":{"rendered":"Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida on ‘Three Stories of Forgetting’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What do fallen empires leave behind? Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida\u2019s new work of fiction attempts to answer that question. \u201cThree Stories of Forgetting\u201d<\/a> probes the inner worlds of three men scarred by their participation in Portugal\u2019s history of rapacious colonialist intervention that ended in 1999. For nearly 600 years, the European republic was involved in a bloody land grab that at its peak controlled over 5.5 million square miles across Africa, Asia and the Americas.<\/p>\n

Pereira de Almeida\u2019s protagonists \u2014 Celestino, a slave trader; Boa Morte, a former soldier who had been conscripted to fight his fellow Africans in the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence; and Bruma, an elderly plantation worker \u2014 live in a liminal state between past and present, searching for some measure of solace in a world that offers none. I chatted with Pereira de Almeida, who was born in Angola but was reared in Lisbon, about her haunting triptych of stories.<\/p>\n

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\u270d\ufe0f Author Chat \"Djaimilia <\/p>\n

Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida is author of \u201cThree Stories of Forgetting,\u201d a new novel exploring the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and the Portuguese Empire.<\/p>\n

(Humberto Brito)<\/p>\n

Three stories of forgetting \u2026 but nothing is forgotten among these men.<\/p>\n

All three men are tormented by what they can\u2019t forget, although they don\u2019t feel exactly guilty, in the case of Celestino and Boa Morte. Bruma is a different story. The \u201cforgetting\u201d of the title relates to the omission of the figures who do not appear in the book, or who appear only occasionally, episodically. Those who are forgotten are the victims and their story. These three stories are also chapters of a more general story of violence, that of colonialism, whose victims are largely forgotten to this day.<\/p>\n

Boa Morte, a valet in Lisbon, carries an enormous burden of guilt; in order to expiate it, he tries to save a young street vagrant. Of course, all attempts at redemption in the book are futile \u2014 why is that?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think redemption is as common as much of today\u2019s fiction seems to suggest. The experience of guilt or of an existence haunted by ghosts seems more common to me. Boa Morte was forgotten by Portugal, the country for which he gave his life, and his hateful behavior left him utterly alone. What would redeem his life? Boa Morte is inspired by a man I knew who became my friend and lived on the streets of Lisbon, just like the character. One day, he was found dead in an alley. Not all lives know redemption.<\/p>\n

The three protagonists are captives of their pasts, because the past is still present. Can you speak to that?<\/p>\n

After reading [British philosopher] Peter Geach\u2019s sentence that opens his book \u201cThe Virtues,\u201d I became interested in inquiring into the lives of people who may be, so to speak, \u201cdead in the eyes of God.\u201d The problem with this possibility, however, is that we may die in the eyes of God early in life, without knowing it, and yet live to old age and remain here.<\/p>\n

This sentence is important to me, regardless of its religious meaning. It is important in that it opens up the possibility that we may have exhausted our share of grace in life and, as humans, need to keep going.<\/p>\n

All three of these characters are looking for some kind of solace \u2014 whether it\u2019s reverting to some kind of quiet life among living things that don\u2019t talk back, or building a lean-to as a kind of sanctuary. <\/p>\n

Perhaps these places they seek are, in very different ways, the only possible remnants of rest: and also places where questions have ceased. Among living things that don\u2019t talk there are no witnesses, there is no guilt.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t write stories like these without some degree of empathy \u2014 do you feel sorry for these men? What do you feel for them as a writer? <\/p>\n

I agree with that. I don\u2019t feel sorry for them, but I tried to get closer to them and understand them, without imposing my ideas and opinions on them, something I don\u2019t like to do when I write novels. Instead, I preferred, as I usually prefer, to fly around them like an insect, to study them, to let them talk to me: It is a non-imposing approach, which lets the characters speak. In general, I tend to be interested in characters I don\u2019t like and who wouldn\u2019t treat me with the kindness I show them. It\u2019s my way of seeking justice, in its contradictions, and of exploring ambiguity in human behavior: I want to create hospitality, and that means being able to extend my hospitality to characters whose deeds I condemn.<\/p>\n

(This Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcf0 The Week(s) in Books \"Carolyn <\/a> <\/p>\n

Carolyn Kellogg, Bethanne Patrick and Mark Athitakis select the best books of the year for The Times.<\/p>\n

(Photo illustration by Josep Prat Sorolla \/ For The Times; book jackets from Scribner, Riverhead and Penguin Press)<\/p>\n

Jim Ruland<\/a> talked to Thurston Moore about his new book that chronicles the Sonic Youth guitarist\u2019s love of free jazz. \u201cI go out with my band and I play typical band gigs,\u201d says Moore, \u201cbut I prefer being in a basement with a free jazz drummer any day of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Athitakis<\/a> finds favor with W. David Marx\u2019s \u201cBlank Space,\u201d<\/a> a sharp critique that maps the decline of our present culture, as well as Adam Morgan\u2019s biography of 20th century literary firebrand Margaret C. Anderson, a trailblazer who bucked the prevailing culture to champion challenging art, including Joyce\u2019s \u201cUlysses.\u201d \u201cIf we want more works like \u2018Ulysses\u2019 in our world (and far less cringe) … it will demand a stubbornness from creators and dedication from consumers that the current moment is designed to strip from us,\u201d Athatakis writes.<\/p>\n

Finally, three critics weigh in on the 15 best books of 2025<\/a>, while Mariella Rudi ticks off the nine best celebrity memoirs of the year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcd6 Bookstore Faves \"Apollo, <\/p>\n

Apollo, one of two bookstore cats, sleeping in a box at the Iliad bookstore in North Hollywood.<\/p>\n

(Gerard Burkhart \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

The San Fernando Valley has lost many of its beloved bookshops over the last two decades, but North Hollywood\u2019s Iliad<\/a> bookshop remains. The store, which first opened its doors 28 years ago and remains the greatest purveyor of used books in all of Los Angeles, is the kind of tangled labyrinth teeming with titles that one can get lost in for hours. I spoke with Dan Weinstein about what is moving out of the doors this holiday season.<\/p>\n

What is selling in the Christmas rush this year? <\/p>\n

We tend to sell the same kinds of titles all year round, so it\u2019s standard literature, science fiction and the handful of authors we can\u2019t keep on the shelves: Octavia Butler, Charles Bukowski, Sarah J. Maas and Brandon Sanderson. Also, a lot of gift cards! Actually, January is our strongest month for sales \u2014 winter kicks in and people like to stay at home and read.<\/p>\n

Full disclosure: I\u2019ve been a loyal Iliad customer since the \u201990s. Do you tend to see the same faces across the years? <\/p>\n

Oh, we have very serious hardcore customers that come over and over again. Some of them even come on a daily basis. Fortunately, we are always putting good new inventory out.<\/p>\n

What about Hollywood business? You have a tremendous inventory of art and photography books. Do set designers come in to find inspiration? <\/p>\n

We do sell a lot to the entertainment industry. That really keeps us alive. If we were doing business in a city other than Los Angeles, I don\u2019t think we would do nearly as well.<\/p>\n

The Iliad Bookshop<\/a> is located in North Hollywood at 5400 Cahuenga Blvd.<\/p>\n

(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What do fallen empires leave behind? Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida\u2019s new work of fiction attempts to answer that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5661,18628,18629,647,8566,15042,9342,18630,18631,14897,18626,18627,48,52,51,1637,47,50,49,18624,18625],"class_list":["post-102898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-author","tag-bestselling-novelist-silvia-moreno","tag-book-exploder","tag-books","tag-chef","tag-conversation","tag-daughter","tag-doctor-moreau","tag-fiction","tag-garcia","tag-keith-corbin","tag-l-a-times-book-club-newsletter","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-life","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-memoir","tag-thrills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}