Grace Period

Portuguese novelist de Carvalho (Empty Wardrobes) sketches a spare and subtly complex portrait of a man reckoning with his past. The narrator, Mateus Silva, begrudgingly returns to his childhood home to sell it to his old neighbor Osório. His terminally ill girlfriend, Alberta, has a dying wish to visit the Acropolis, and he vows to use the money to fund her trip, despite being unsure whether he really loves her. After the sale, Osório invites Mateus to dinner with his wife, Graça, whose beauty captivated Mateus as a child. Years ago, Mateus’s father had an affair with Graça, which broke up his parents’ marriage. The weight of that history hangs heavy on Mateus, especially because they’re joined at dinner by Graça and Osório’s daughter, Natália, who was born after the affair and is unsure who her father is. De Carvalho complicates the seemingly straightforward tale of homecoming and family secrets with elliptical dialogue, mirroring the characters’ uncertainty about their own motivations and others’ (“I don’t quite understand,” Alberta says, after Silva tries to explain Natália’s own affair with a married man, to which he responds, “Neither does she. Neither do I”). Readers will find plenty to admire. Agent: Ella Sher, Ella Sher Literary. (Sept.)