Equator: A Colonial Novel

The early 20th century. A Portuguese colony of São Tomé and Príncipe, lost on the equator, has been in a tropical stupor for centuries. Progress and education arrive there suddenly, threatening economic collapse both for the colony and for the metropole—if a British consul discovers that slavery is practiced on the plantations. With a special mission from the Portuguese king to the islands arrives a new governor—an elegant dandy and ladies’ man from the capital, Luis-Bernardo Valença. The novel, sweeping in scope, firmly pulls the reader into a world of stuffy tropics and their colorful inhabitants—white planters and Angolan workers. Like an equatorial forest breathing with moisture, it’s saturated with intense emotions, a clash between high and base feelings, and love-story collisions—passionate and poetic. First published in Portugal in 2003, the novel by Miguel Souza Tavares (born 1950) received, at home, the status of the best book of the decade. Since then, "The Equator" has been published with unchanging success in dozens of countries in eleven languages.