Author Margarida Rebelo Pinto

The second author I would like to recommend to you for December is Margarida Rebelo Pinto, little known abroad, but famous in Portugal.

Margarida Rebelo Pinto was born in Lisbon in June 1965. She obtained her Master’s degree in Modern Literature. She started work as a journalist and wrote articles for very celebrated magazines and newspapers, such as Elle, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and Vogue. Margarida Rebelo Pinto is Portugal’s current best-selling author. She was named one of the 25 most influential women in Portuguese contemporary society. She has a son. She loves tea and long walks.

Margarida, writes about love and women in today’s society. This is the topic of all of her novels. Her books are romantic, sincere, nostalgic, funny and easy to read. Her intuitive analyses of behaviour and relationships between men and women are accusatory.  She excels at writing about generations of Old Portuguese families and reflects on the evolution of Portuguese society: the good and the bad things in it.

Margarida has her detractors, who do not consider her as a “real” writer. But the reading public has had its say... Yes, her books are best sellers in Portugal and are widely sold in Spain, Brazil, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Lithuania. Her novels move people, they bring something into their lives. What determines the value of a writer? In my eyes, her (or his) universe, her own talented written skills and style, her passion to take us on an extraordinary journey... As I said in my “About Me” page, I have no training in this field, but I can’t live without books. They fulfil me and I am willing to read a book as long as the writing is engaging.

The first time I came across one of Margarida’s books was in June 2006 while on vacation in Lisbon. I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was at FNAC and found a book that looked like a diary, so cute... I started reading it and couldn’t put it down. Within minutes I felt my heart beating faster and tears coming to my eyes. The book was “Diário da tua Ausência” (in English Diary of your absence), a beautifully written story about a break-up, the end of a love affair. It drove me into all the feelings you go through when you lose the person you love (sadness, despair, loneliness, anger, resilience and acceptance). I have read it four times since then.