Book of Disquiet

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) was born in Lisbon and raised in Durban, South Africa. He attended the University of Cape Town, where he won the Queen Victoria Prize for English Essay. Pessoa wrote under more than 75 pseudonyms, many of which he developed into “heteronyms,” characters endowed with their own biographies, physiques, personalities, political views, religious attitudes, and literary pursuits, all capable of reviewing each other’s work in the literary journals of the time. The author of poetry collections, including 35 Sonnets and Mensagem, he was a leading light in Portugal’s Modernist movement. He also invented several movements, including “Intersectionism” and “Sensationism.”

Richard Zenith is an acclaimed translator and literary critic. His translations include Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet and Fernando Pessoa and Co.: Selected Poems, which won the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. The recipient of Portugal’s Pessoa Prize, Zenith lives in Lisbon.