Will a man walk two thousand kilometres for a woman? In 1967, Zé will. Salazar's Portugal has become a prison for him.
1966: When Jody, young mother and designer from the north of England, arrives on the Lisbon coast, she brings the lure of 'Swinging London' to Portuguese painter Zé's existing dreams of freedom. A nascent love is interrupted when, back in England, husband Michael forces her to choose between their 2-year-old daughter Anna and Zé. And Zé, at home in Lisbon and grounded by the state's secret police, can only wait.
For both Jody and Zé, love is revolution. And personal and political threads weave their story, a period piece set amid the then socially conservative North of England, the light and rugged landscapes of modern Portugal, and the darkness of the dying years of Europe's longest-running dictatorship. A Sea of Straw, with its pervading atmosphere of saudades, is a quest for love in revolutionary times.
About the Author :
Julia Sutton is an artist and writer from East Anglia, who has lived and worked for much of her adult life in continental Europe. Following eleven years in Paris, she returned, in 1997, to her native Suffolk coast, where she now lives and writes full-time. A Sea Of Straw is her first novel.
Review :
'A beautifully written and elegiac story of love, politics and the cruelties of war. A Sea of Straw is an emotionally satisfying read, lyrical and powerful in its psychological depths.' Amanda Hodgkinson, author of 22 Britannia Road, Spilt Milk.
'A Sea of Straw is a tale of vivid landscapes and dark shadows, of two rebel souls drawn together by chance, who must fight for their chance at happiness. a haunting debut.' Kit Habianic, journalist, magazine editor, author of Until Our Blood is Dry.
'Every night on the news borders loom large as a controversial and often explosive theme. People crossing them illegally, people thwarted by them, people incensed that controls aren't tighter. Borders are what define us and also what hold us back. A Sea of Straw is a novel about both legislative and metaphysical borders, about a world in which freedom of movement is denied.
It's 1966, the summer of love. Jody, married with a young child, is recuperating from pneumonia in Portugal where she falls in love with Ze, an artist. The novel begins as she's about to leave and she and Ze are making plans for the future. The novel dramatises the oppressive political and social forces that then stand in their way, like border guards. Portugal, in a time-warp, is in the grip of a totalitarian regime where the Gestapo-like secret police patrol every corner. The dictator, Salazar, we learn, has never been abroad. Basically his government is a prototype for what many far right parties are currently clamouring for all across Europe. Though not an activist himself Ze has many friends who are militantly opposed to the fascist regime. He's also about to be drafted to fight in Portugal's colonial wars in Africa. In other words he has virtually no freedom of movement.
Jody, on the other hand, returns to Lancashire faced with the challenge of extricating herself from her loveless marriage and acquiring autonomy. England may be in the midst of a cultural revolution but Manchester seems dour, backward and rife with stifling prejudice, especially contrasted with the vivacious colour and sensuality of Lisbon - the irony of this contrast is portrayed really well. Jody has to face a different, more ostensibly benign kind of censorship and secret policing.
The novel alternates between the experiences of Ze and Jody. In terms of dramatic tension the Portugal sections have the fraught atmosphere of a WW2 novel, except, of course, we're learning about a different and largely ignored period of history. It's an incredibly informative account of what was happening in Portugal in 1966-67 but dramatised rather than told. It's written with love and a painterly attention to detail, the work of a romantic sensibility which reminded me of the wonderful Shirley Hazzard who sadly died this week.'
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