Germano Almeida
Germano Almeida (1945- ), author of five novels, was born in Cape Verde. He studied law in Lisbon, and then in 1989 he founded the publishing house Ilhéu Editora. Mr. Almeida currently lives on the island of Sao Vincente, Cape Verde.
The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo
Fiction by Germano Almeida
Translated by Sheila Faria Glaser
Everyone in Cape Verde knew Senhor da Silva Araújo. Successful entrepeneur, owner of the island’s first automobile, a most serious, upright, and self-made businessman, Senhor da Silva Araújo was the local success story. Born an orphan, he never married, he never splurged—one good suit was good enough for him—and he never wandered from the straight and narrow. Or so everyone thought.
But when his 387-page Last Will and Testament is read aloud—a marathon task on a hot afternoon which exhausts reader after reader—there is shocking news, and not just for the smug nephew so certain of inheriting all of Senhor da Silva Araújo’s property.…
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—El PaísGermano Almeida uses a very sophisticated, humorous, but at the same time melancholic style [and] offers a miniscule inventory of daily life, of the social conventions and habits of Cape Verde … Like the singer Cesaria Evora, Germano Almeida surprised us with the essential richness of this world and with is proximity and vigor.
