The Portuguese Witness

John Reidy

Description

An elegant saga with storylines across eras and family generations, set with geographical precision in both modern and Roman Portugal.
A heartwarming tale of love, tragedy, loss, success, friendships, mystery and love rediscovered for Paulo, the urbane successful architect of modern Portugal.
Travel around the cities and towns, vineyards and Atlantic litoral landscapes of Portugal with Paulo and his friends and discover the magical history, culture, cuisine and enology of this both ancient and modern country.
Marvel at the extraordinary and wonderfully complicated effect of Claudio Bracarri, a Lusitanian Celt of Roman times on Paulo’s life, an effect compounded by the rediscovery of ancient Roman artefacts and documents, once the property of Claudio and the Treasury of the ancient Roman city of Connimbraga.
Written with an easy, comfortable classicism, the novel appeals to the sophisticated reader and traveller.

Sujets

• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse UK
• Date de parution: 04 février 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781728398372
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

This is the perfect read for anyone who enjoys travel, dramatic stories of love and loss, and sophisticated intellectually written books overall. As a fan of travel, it was great to get just as immersed in the book’s setting as the actual narrative, creating an immersive experience that connected me with a thought provoking and emotionally driven story. — Anthony Avina Pacific Book Review.
A story of luck, fate, and friendship, this novel crosses through time to highlight the compassion and accomplishments of humanity. Told via an omniscient narrator, the book reads similar to early twentieth-century literature with straightforward, practical observation, focusing mostly on how the events of the novel unfold. — Gabriella Tutino US Review of Books
A well written, descriptive and detailed read, author John Reidy does an excellent job of bringing the reader into the culturally rich world of Portugal. The history and settings become just as important a character in the story as the protagonist himself, creating a rich narrative that readers will connect with emotionally. — Pacific Book Review
Reidy’s narrative has a strong filmic style, and the novel is rich in story-enhancing details, both ancient and modern, creating enchanting landscapes replete with food, wine, and romance. Readers are addictively pulled into his characters’ lives, while easily inhabiting Reidy’s magical world of time travel. —Blue Ink Review
THE Portuguese Witness
JOHN REIDY


AuthorHouse™ UK
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403 USA
www.authorhouse.co.uk
Phone: UK TFN: 0800 0148641 (Toll Free inside the UK) UK Local: (02) 0369 56322 ([phone] from outside the UK)
 
 
 
 
 
 
© 2020 John Reidy. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse 01/10/2022
 
ISBN: 978-1-7283-9838-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-7283-9839-6 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-7283-9837-2 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020902332
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Contents
1Admission
2Paulo de Silva Barros
3Alcobaça
4Claudio Bracarri
5Claudio’s Forgery
6Claudio’s Exodus
7Connimbraga
8Suevi Invade
9Coimbra
10Bragança
11João do Pino
12Marriage Preparations
13Adrianna Returns
14Tragedy
15Desolation
16João’s Pain
17New World, New Life
18Sara’s Letter
19Paulo’s Return
20Paulo and João
21Family Emotions
22Pedro’s Bequest
23Paulo’s Return to Portugal
24Afonso’s Melancholia
25Paulo’s Architectural Practice
26First Project
27Pedro Delivers
28Project Progress
29Silvio’s Partnership
30Project Delivery
31Alcobaça Visits
32Afonso Prepares to Meet Maria Anna
33Business Grows
34Susanna de Santiago
35Susanna’s Exhibition
36Susanna’s Career
37Susanna’s Progress
38Rebirth
39Paulo’s Dream
40Claudio’s Medical Examination
41Claudio’s Cave
42Paulo Dreams Again
43Sao Martino do Porto
44Caldas da Rainha
45Inventory
46Berlengas Islands
47Business in Lisbon
48Claudio Adapts to Modernity
49Paulo’s Goodbye to the Wise Old Man
50Bureaucratic Reaction
51And So to Lisbon
52Tense Meetings
53Santarém
54Susanna Revisits Alcobaça
55Leiria
56Gulbenkian Museum
57Claudio Becomes a Citizen
58The Bracarri Foundation
59Maria Carmo
60Love Is in the Air
61Paulo and Claudio Become Matchmakers
62Lisbon Development
63The Beautiful Douro
64Quinta da Porta Azul
65Vintage House Hotel
66Adrianna’s Bragança
67Régua
68Pinhão
69Maria’s Decision
70Wedding Bells and Fireworks
 
About The Author

Most people, as perceived by casual observation, lead ordinary and simple lives, yet many people, in their own perception and that of their close acquaintances, lead extraordinary and gloriously complicated lives.
Such were and continue to be the lives of Paulo de Silva Barros and Claudio Bracarri, made even more extraordinary and wonderfully complicated by their unlikely interaction and the effect that interaction had on each of their lives.
1
Admission
“I’ll never really understand why I confided in this man—a stranger, really,” Paulo later said to Silvio. “And I treated him like a confessor, a psychiatrist. I unloaded all the pent-up emotions of that dreadful part of my past not on a brother, a friend, or a priest but on an unknown stranger with a questionable background.
“I mean, I can understand why he confided in me—he didn’t really have an option, given his circumstances, and he needed all the help he could get. But for me to open up to him the darkest places of my soul, which I’d kept hidden from my family for so long, was so much out of character for me.
“Maybe it was his vulnerability. He had no barriers or walls—could not afford to have, considering where he found himself—and maybe I’d kept my barriers up for too long. But it seemed right, two grown men with little in common opening up their souls to each other.” Paulo paused as if to reflect and then continued. “Perhaps it was all for the best.”
“I think so. Yes, I think so,” said Silvio, looking knowingly at Paulo and thinking, You are so bloody right that it was for the best .
2
Paulo de Silva Barros
To his peers, his colleagues, his friends, and his business associates, Paulo Henrique de Silva Barros was a highly talented, successful, and enviable man.
While his close friends and family were aware of the tragedy and ensuing trauma that had visited Paulo’s life, only Paulo himself was aware of the great void of emptiness that pervaded his very heart and tortured soul.
None of Paulo’s torture was evident in the manner in which he lived his life or conducted his business, but the pain and emptiness were constantly available to Paulo himself in his periods of solitude and reflection. In fact, it was possible that Paulo’s torture had become so much a part of his psyche that he might not have welcomed deliverance.
Paulo had learned to compartmentalize his life to such an extent that he was absolutely proud of and delighted in the successes he had achieved in his business and professional career and never allowed his private pain to interfere with or even be in any way evident in his public persona.
At 44 years of age, Paulo had achieved more from and contributed more to life and society than most people could have even if given many lifetimes.
3
Alcobaça
His birth was no more traumatic for Paulo than for most others entering this world but proved most traumatic for his family, as his mother, the lovely Maria Anna—beloved of his father, Afonso Barros, and adored by his grandfather, Pedro Henrique de Silva—did not survive the complications of the birth. Her untimely passing broke the heart of her husband and father and left them to deal with their sorrow in their own individual ways.
Paulo’s birth and Maria Anna’s almost simultaneous death had taken place in the family home, Casa Vermelho, on the grounds of the Hotel Mirador, situated in a hilly, heavily wooded area adjacent to the historical spa town of Alcobaça, in the Estremadura region of Portugal, about 150 kilometres north of the capital, Lisbon.
Pedro de Silva had surprised the people of Alcobaça in 1950, when he bought the neglected Casa Mirador, situated within more than two hundred hectares of parkland and pine and eucalyptus woodlands. The Casa Mirador had seemed almost certainly destined for dereliction when Pedro persuaded his bank to advance the necessary funds not only to purchase but also to restore and convert the property to a country hotel.
In the economic climate prevailing in Portugal during the early fifties, the project required a giant leap of faith from the bank as well as from Pedro, but with an ever-increasing cash flow from his specialist restoration business, he was quietly confident.
By the 1950s, Pedro had established a successful hotel and had built within the grounds the Casa Vermelho, where he lived with his wife, Maria Helena, and their children, Joaquim and Maria Anna.
It was in 1950 that Maria Anna married her sweetheart, Afonso Barros, manager of a local bank, and in this year Pedro had passed responsibility for operating the hotel to Maria Anna and Afonso to allow himself to concentrate on his ever-expanding restoration and furniture manufacturing business.
While Paulo may have been denied a natural mother to love and nurture him during his early years, he was unaware of the loss. The role of mother was taken up with great love and enthusiasm by Isabela Gomes, head housekeeper of the Hotel Mirador and wife of the hotel’s manager, Rui Gomes, and with equal love and responsibility by his aunt Leanora, wife of Maria’s brother, Joaquim.
His father was no less loving than his surrogate mothers but tempered with a distancing which Paulo misinterpreted as his father’s austere nature but which resulted, as Paulo learned in later years, from a deep sense of loss for