Empty Wardrobes by de Carvalho, Maria Judite
Maria Judite de Carvalho
Books

Empty Wardrobes -- Maria Judite de Carvalho, Paperback


"There is no doubting the authenticity of Carvalho's vision and the originality and severity of her voice." --Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books

For ten years Dora has ritualistically mourned her husband's death, a pointless ritual that forced her to rely on support from old friends and acquaintances. Her beloved husband, a "Christ" so principled he rejected any ambition whatsoever as a construct of a corrupt society, succeeded only in leaving Dora and their daughter with nothing. When her mother-in-law reveals a shattering secret about their marriage one night, Dora's narrative of her own life is destroyed. Three generations of women--Dora, her daughter, and mother-in-law--must navigate a world that has been shaped by the blundering men off in the distance, figures barely present who nonetheless define the lives of the women they would call mother, wife, or lover.

Narrated through the gritted teeth of an acquaintance, Empty Wardrobes--Maria Judite de Carvalho's cutting 1966 novel, translated from Portuguese for the first time by Margaret Jull Costa and introduced by Kate Zambreno--is a tale of women who are trapped within the quiet devastation of a patriarchal society and preyed upon by the ambient savageries that perch in its every crevice.



Author: Maria Judite de Carvalho
Publisher: Two Lines Press
Published: 10/12/2021
Pages: 184
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 7.00h x 4.50w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781949641219

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2021
Publishers Weekly 10/11/2021
Booklist 09/24/2021
Shelf Awareness 12/03/2021