A funny sad novella about how we got here from there and how in our youth quotour eyes saw things differentlyquot The TimesA private meeting chance encounters and a mysterious tour of Lisbon haunt this moving homage to Tabucchis adopted cityIn the city of Lisbon Requiems narrator has an appointment to meet someone on a quay by the Tagus at twelve Misunderstanding twelve to mean noon as opposed to midnight he is left to wait As the day unfolds he has many unexpected encounters with a young drug addict a disorientated taxi driver a cemetery keeper the mysterious Isabel and the ghost of the late great poet Fernando Pessoa each meeting travelling between the real and illusionary Part travelogue part autobiography part fiction Requiem becomes an homage to a country and its people and a farewell to the past as the narrator lays claim to a literary forebear who like himself is an evasive and manysided personalityTabucchi is a master of illusion and allusion and this is a literary puzzle that teases amuses and provokes Sunday Telegraph
