Discover the main contemporary Portuguese authors with Kleya. They will uncover Portugal’s soul to you, through their stories, sceneries, experiences and senses. Reading and travelling go hand in hand and your experience of the country will be enriched by exploring the work of these authors. 

José Luís Peixoto (born 1974) is one of Portugal's most acclaimed and bestselling contemporary novelists. He has published novels, short stories, poems and plays, and his books have been translated into twenty languages, including A Child in Ruins, The Piano Cemetery, Antidote, Blank Gaze and many more. His work is studied at several national and foreign universities. In 2001, following an immense recognition of critics and the public, the José Saramago Literary Prize was awarded to Blank Gaze. 

valter hugo mãe (in low caps) is the artistic name of the Portuguese writer Valter Hugo Lemos (born 1971). He is also an editor, singer and plastic artist. valter hugo mãe received the José Saramago Prize in Literature in 2007 for his novel The Baltazar Serapion Remorse. His work has already been translated in several countries. Some of his published works are The Dehumanization, The son of a thousand men, The Spanish maker, The workers apocalypse.

valter hugo mãe has an innovative and enchanting writing, with a strong dilution of boundaries between fiction and reality. An exceedingly original creator, his strong sense of humanity transpires at every word and stays with you long after you read the last word. 

Afonso Cruz (born 1971 in Lisbon) is a writer you will want to read with a pencil in hand.  His books appeal to the active participation of the reader. In addition to being a writer and illustrator - with a variety of children's volume works in magazines and advertising - he is a member of a blues band, The Soaked Lamb, where he sings, plays guitar, harmonica and banjo. He roamed more than 60 countries alone, without a camera, and took the time to read and write. He has more than 20 books published and translated into various languages, including The Capital, Kukla Kokoschki, The books that devoured my Father. 

Teolinda Gersão (born 1940 in Coimbra), studied at the universities of Coimbra, Tübingen and Berlin. Teolinda ́s fiction develops an original romanesque poetic work, often focused on the dynamics of opposites (man/woman, chaos/cosmos, rationality/madness, among others). Discover her work through one of her many translated books like The Word Tree, Big Brother isn´t Watching You, and The City of Ulysses, a fictional work inspired by the fine arts, based on conversations with some painters, defining her peculiar dialogue with painting and her passion for the arts in general.

António Lobo Antunes (born 1942 in Lisbon) studied medicine, specialising in psychiatry. From 1971 to 1973, during the colonial war in Angola, he worked as a military doctor. After his return he worked as a psychiatrist at a hospital in Lisbon. His first two novels, Elephant's Memory and South of Nowhere, were published in 1979 and made him an overnight success. They deal with his experiences in the war and in his professional life. He has been a freelance writer since 1985. Lobo Antunes has been on the cards for a Nobel Prize for years. His novels have an inimitable style; artistic, complex, they are characterised by frequent shifts in perspective and pacing. His works deal with Portugal in history and today and concentrate on borderline or unimportant lives. Lobo Antunes' works have been translated into more than thirty languages and honoured with numerous prizes and awards.

Goncalo M. Tavares (born 1970) is a poet and novelist. His books gave rise to plays, artistic objects, art videos, opera, etc. His work is currently being translated in forty-five countries. His novel Jerusalem has been included in the European edition of "1001 Books to Read Before You Die - A Chronological Guide to the Most Important Novels of All Time."

Lidia Jorge (born 1946 in Algarve) is considered one of the greatest novelists in contemporary literature. Lídia Jorge was a teacher, first in Lisbon and then in Angola and Mozambique during the colonial war. Her book The Murmuring Coast (1988) established her in the national and international literary scene. In the book, which chronicles the colonial war from the feminine point of view, the influence of the three years that lived in Mozambique before the fall of the dictatorship in 1974 is notorious. 

Kleya is so proud to unveil these amazing authors to you. The Portuguese literary scene is so rich, we know once you start reading some of these authors, you will undoubtedly continue on the path of further discoveries, so typical of this country's heritage.