For some, Mamarrosa is a place you merely pass through. For others it is somewhere from which you want to escape. Some people come here to disappear. A small town in rural Portugal, it is on the way to other places, but people rarely stop there. And those who do usually have a reason.
Men and women, children and old people all tell their stories, piece by piece, locals, expatriates, tourists alike, and in so doing assemble the story of the town itself, a tale of exile and belonging, rich with resonance and regret.
‘A kind of Portuguese version of Under Milk Wood…wise, graceful and supremely elegant.’
Daily Telegraph
‘A highly original and multi-faceted work in which Ali not only lives up to her early promise but glides past it with ease…A remarkable and enviable achievement.’
Irish Times
‘An elegiac, comic, heart-tuggingly observant work. In it Ali proves herself a novelist of maturing ability and ambition, the writing even finer and sharper than in Brick Lane.’
Glasgow Herald