Portugal, Summer 2023 ~ Read

I am still in search of a great book set in Portugal. For now, I am substituting Journey to Portugal by Jose Saramago as a stand-in. It is a personal travelogue written by a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature that goes into a significant level of detail about every last little village and bend in a road and gurgling creek under a country bridge across the country. Saramago incorporates historical background, entertaining personal anecdotes, sometimes strange, sometimes enlightening encounters with locals, as he explores Portugal from north to south. I admit, I didn’t have the time or patience for this level of detail for every Portuguese hamlet, so I cherry-picked sections of the book focused on the areas we were about to visit. It was helpful in getting the sense of the places, but, despite the author’s evident craft of writing and love for his country, I missed my preferred way of being immersed in a place with the help of all-engrossing plot line and compelling characters.