I libri che divorarono mio padre

At a nod from my grandmother, I took the small stairs leading to the attic and opened the door. My hands were trembling. I knew the attic was filled with letters pretending to be dead, but - I knew it well - merely brushing them with my eyes would be enough to make them leap up, full of life. Hesitantly, I entered and opened the window. The attic smelled of a closed-off room, and everything was covered in dust. When the light entered, it filled the library with white specks. It was dust on the verge of becoming a teenager; it was twelve-year-old dust, the same age as me. All the books were arranged perfectly on the shelves, standing still, following me, watching me from their spines. I looked back at them, squinting my eyes without falling into the ambush of any of those titles. Near the window sat the armchair my father used to use, and on top of it, there was a book.

Target Age: 11+ years

Author: Afonso Cruz

He is one of the leading contemporary Portuguese authors. An illustrator, animated film director, and musician, he received the European Union Prize for Literature for his novel A Boneca de Kokoschka (Quetzal, Lisbon 2010), along with numerous other awards in Portugal for both his children’s and adult books. He lives with his family in the countryside, where he brews beer. The Books That Devoured My Father is his first children’s book to be translated into Italian.