The Book of Disquiet

The very book to read when you wake at 3am and can't get back to sleep - mysteries, misgivings, fears and dreams and wonderment. Like nothing else. -- Philip Pullman In a time which celebrates fame, success, stupidity, convenience and noise, here is the perfect antidote -- John Lanchester * Daily Telegraph * A complete masterpiece, the sort of book one makes friends with and cannot bear to be parted with -- Paul Bailey * Independent * A meandering, melancholic series of reveries and meditations ... beguiling and mysterious -- William Boyd It's hard to explain how this modernist hymnal of boredom, fatigue, dejection and jadedness is so beautiful and life affirming -- Mike McCormack * New Statesman Books of the Year * To read and then contemplate him is to be lifted a little bit above the earth in a floating bubble. One becomes both of the world and not of it. There's no one like him, apart from all of us. -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian * An odd, occasionally exasperating and sometimes beautiful book and one that will be your friend at 3am on a sleepless night. -- Sophia Martelli * Observer * Fernando Pessoa was simply one of the best 20th-century writers ever... captivating... a series of beautifully wistful reminiscences, diary entries and aphoristic snippets... we recommend it like crazy. Pick one up and open it anywhere and we promise you'll be richly rewarded. -- Stuart Hammond * Dazed and Confused * Gorgeous ... utterly original * The New York Times * A reading experience unlike any other ... you will never forget it, or stop waiting to return to it -- Chris Power * New Statesman *

Fernando Pessoa was born in Lisbon in 1888. He grew up in Durban, South Africa, where his stepfather was Portuguese consul. He returned to Lisbon in 1905 and worked as a clerk in an import-export company until his death in 1935. Most of Pessoa's writing was not published during his lifetime; The Book of Disquiet first came out in Portugal in 1982. Since its first publication, it has been hailed as a classic. The new edition was edited by Jernimo Pizarro and translated by Margaret Jull Costa.