The tour will commence in Berlin next week, visiting cities such as Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Dusseldorf. Prior to this, the author will participate in the Leipzig Book Fair alongside José Luís Peixoto, Francisco Sousa Lobo, and Tatiana Levy.
“After many years without having any work translated into German, ‘Misericórdia’ will be released in this market,” stated Patricia Salvação Barreto, Cultural Counselor of the Portuguese Embassy in Berlin, in a conversation with Lusa news agency.
The launch of ‘Erbarmen’ (‘Misericórdia’) will be conducted through a discussion with translator Steven Uhly and editor Christian Ruzicska from Secession Verlag publishing house.
Known for notable novels such as ‘O Dia dos Prodígios’, ‘A Costa dos Murmúrios’, ‘O Vale da Paixão’, and ‘Os Memoráveis’, Lídia Jorge is recognized as a significant voice in contemporary literature, highlighted by the publishing company.
‘Misericórdia’ (2022), one of Lídia Jorge’s most acclaimed works, won the Médicis Étranger Prize in 2023, marking her as the first Portuguese-speaking author to receive this award, established in France in 1970. “Misericórdia” also claimed the Grand Prize for Romance and Novel from the Portuguese Writers’ Association, the narrative award from the Portuguese PEN Club, the Fernando Namora Prize, and the Urbano Tavares Rodrigues Prize, among other accolades.
Lídia Jorge wrote ‘Misericórdia’ following a request from her mother, one of the early Covid-19 victims in the south of the country: “My mother asked me several times to write a book called ‘misericórdia’, because she felt there was a misunderstanding in how people were treated, she believed people sought to be loved but were not understood. She asked me to write a book called ‘misericórdia’, to foster compassion for people and to treat them as individuals in the fullness of life,” Lídia Jorge explained in an interview with Lusa agency upon the book’s publication in 2022.
This month, Lídia Jorge received the insignia of Commander of Arts and Letters of France, the highest cultural distinction awarded by the Ministry of Culture.
Born 78 years ago in Boliqueime, Algarve, the Portuguese writer made her debut in 1980 with the novel ‘O Dia dos Prodígios’.
In addition to over a dozen novels, her bibliography includes collections of short stories, children’s literature, essays, theater, poetry, and chronicles.
Lídia Jorge has received numerous Portuguese and international literary awards, including the FIL Award for Literature in Romance Languages in 2020, from Guadalajara, one of the most prestigious in Latin America.
The University of Massachusetts in the United States inaugurated the Lídia Jorge Chair, dedicated to the study of the Portuguese writer’s work, joining a chair established in September 2021 at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.
Since March 2021, Lídia Jorge has also been a member of the Council of State, the political advisory body to the President of the Portuguese Republic.
