«The change that is shaped here in this story is not only that of the Algarve, but the change of a world that has disappeared». This was how António Manuel Venda, editor of On Y Va, presented this Sunday the book «Alfaiate», by Helena Tapadinhas.
With this story, which the author guaranteed to be "almost a novel", Helena Tapadinhas had won, in 2017, the Santos Stockler Literary Prize, promoted by the Municipality of Lagoa. But only now, two years later, the book with the award-winning short story was finally edited, by the publisher On Y Va and by the local authority in Lagos.
The work was officially launched in Carvoeiro, in June, and has now started to be presented in several places. The first one was the multipurpose room of the Parish Council of Monchique, last Sunday, 18 July, at the end of the day.
In front of four dozen people, José Gonçalo, chairman of the Board, António Manuel Venda, writer and editor, and the author herself spoke a little about the story told in the book. Helena Tapadinhas also read (and interpreted, or was she not a woman in the theater) excerpts from the short story.
«In “Tailor”, what we have is the picture of a time that will not return. It is the happiest testimony about a certain Algarve that some of us will have known, but that will never come back», stressed António Manuel Venda.
Helena Tapadinhas would emphasize that “change” is perhaps the basic word of her story, “change of a cultural paradigm”, a change experienced and told in the first person by a dog, the Tailor. “It is a change that is always happening, but which has now accelerated. The change in what was the foundation of cultures, when people lived off the territory, they lived on what land or sea gave. This is happening», stressed the author.
However, he warns: "there is no moralizing sense" in this story. There is no intention of saying that everything was good before, like a lost paradise, in contrast to today. The tale only counts.
The tale is a succession of short stories and episodes, some of them rocambolescos, many of them true, among which one of the most delicious is the one that explains the origin of the name of the Tailor dog, who was swam and raised on Carvoeiro beach in the 60s .
“This is a short story, it's fiction, but there's a lot of truth in it. There are characters here that once existed. Carvoeiro was like that,” added Helena Tapadinhas.
«This is my vision. From the moment the story becomes the reader's, it ceases to be mine. Each one will reinterpret it. The book takes on a life of its own, it becomes yours», he concluded.
The book «Tailor» costs 10 euros and is on sale in the main bookstores, and can still be ordered directly from the publisher On Y Va, through your website, of your Facebook page or email [email protected].
Listen and see Helena Tapadinhas reading some excerpts from the short story «Alfaiate»:
Photos and video: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação
Comments